


A Curious Cat

by RebelPaisley



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Adult Language, Angst, Anxiety, Auradon politics, Beast Instincts, Bonding, Comedy, Complete, Conspiracy, Crack Treated Seriously, Crew Dynamics, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Happy Ending, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Porn, Investigation, Low Self-Esteem, M/M, Mild Internalized Homophobia, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mistaken Identity, Multi, No Beta we die like vikings, Non-Graphic Violence, OT3, OT5, Polyamory, Post-Descendants (2015), Public Displays of affection sort of, Realizations, Recovery, Referenced depression, Rescue, Romance, Self Loathing, Sexual Content, Soul Mates Sort Of, Unhealthy Conditioning, Unhealthy Familial Relations, breach of privacy, breakdown - Freeform, dancer chad, minor heartbreak, referenced abuse, slutshaming, tags added as we go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:47:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27619930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelPaisley/pseuds/RebelPaisley
Summary: Chad just needed a performance credit to pass his dance class.  The problem was he didn’t want to dance in front of people, so his teacher came up with a compromise: perform in the school’s production of Cats under a fake name and no one would know who he was.  Great.  Amazing.  And then Ben had to start throwing around all this ‘mate’ business.Also known as – That time Chad accidentally wooed Ben with his dancing, got his performance credit, and maybe got a guy or two along with that (eventual) happily ever after.Also, also known as – that Cinderella AU that isn’t really a Cinderella AU at all.
Relationships: Ben/Chad Charming, Ben/Chad Charming/Doug/Evie/Jay, Ben/Chad Charming/Jay, Ben/Jay (Disney: Descendants), Chad Charming/Jay, Doug/Evie (Disney: Descendants)
Comments: 77
Kudos: 81





	1. Raising the Curtain

There were moments where Chad loathed his existence.

Granted, he knew he had it better than most, but still, he could not deny that there were instances when the absurdity that was his life was irritating to the point of self-hatred.

For example: Chad was failing dance.

Dance. He was failing _dance_. 

And he honestly had no one to blame but himself, because he’d needed a PE credit and thought ‘ _dance, that seems like fun_ ’ because he enjoyed dancing in his own room back at Sardinia Castle. He enjoyed the few royal functions that took him to the ballet, he enjoyed watching performances online whenever he could indulge himself in frivolous entertainments. And while he had no formal training, Chad liked to think he was sort of good at it. 

And he was. That was sort of the problem.

Well, the real problem was that he listened to his grandfather’s grumbling about how only _fairies_ liked to dance like that – and not the mystical kind. How only those with not enough time on their hands, those who had given up on more rewarding and intellectual pursuits, those that knew that ‘ _visually whoring_ ’ oneself out were their only options in life, all turned to dance. 

Why the fuck he decided to mention this _after_ Chad had enrolled in a dance class when they had never touched on the subject before was beyond Chad, with the exception that this might have been the first time his grandfather had actually looked into his schedule and realized the prince-in-training he was stuck with also wanted to be a fairy. A non-mystical fairy.

So Chad had psyched himself out. To the point of _failing_ dance. Mostly because he’d been ‘sick’ for all the recitals, but the teacher knew better and Chad knew he couldn’t actually perform in front of other humans that might include his grandfather so he supposed his record was going to be tarnished by a failed PE credit and his grandfather would have yet another reason to hate Chad until the end of his days.

At least until the teacher found a compromise.

The compromise, for the record, was stupid. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Do you know why you’re here?” Ms. Terpsichore asked, utilizing a gentle smile that was definitely intended to lure Chad into a false sense of security.

Because most of the staff at Auradon Prep considered Chad an idiot anyway, he considered feigning ignorance for a few seconds before ultimately shrugging. “…because I get sick a lot?” 

The smile widened. It was a lying smile, and yet even with that knowledge, Chad could find no cruelty in her expression.

“That would be one of the issues,” she allowed with a hum. “As you well know, one of the requirements for achieving a passing grade in my class is to perform in two major dance recitals. Because of your various illnesses, you have yet to perform in any.”

Chad allowed his eyes to go wide even though he’d been expecting this conversation for a while.

Ms. Terpsichore hummed. “Now while it could be quite possible that you’ve been sick during _every_ one of our performances, I’m beginning to think it’s more likely that you have stage fright. Except you do so well in all of your public interviews, so… maybe it’s just dancing you feel self-conscious about?”

 _Obviously_. 

But Chad didn’t say anything, because sometimes it was better to allow your opponent to fill in their own blanks rather than doing them the favor of providing ammunition.

He thought. He was pretty sure.

It couldn’t hurt, was what he was getting at.

“…you seemed so enthusiastic when you first started class,” Ms. Terpsichore noted. “And now I can hardly get you to participate.”

That was because _before_ Chad realized he’d be making his family look bad just by doing some ballet or whatever. He thought it was a good source of exercise and coordination- he hadn’t known he’d look stupid, and that Sardinia would look stupid by extension. 

On a regular basis, Chad already made his kingdom look bad by floundering under the weight of his private studies and Auradon Prep schoolwork, he couldn’t add another thing to the list, even if he’d mistakenly thought it would be a harmless indulgence. He should have stuck to Tourney. Or Swords and Shields. Granted, he was doing those too, just, he’d wanted to avoid the practices that took place _during_ school so he could avoid Jay, who made Chad uncomfortable for reasons he could never accurately express.

“So I’ve come up with a solution,” the teacher continued brightly, pulling Chad from his contemplation. “ _You_ need a performance credit – that isn’t a negotiation, but how you achieve that credit, well… we can get a little creative.”

She smiled at Chad, another one of those soft ones that always made him feel uneasy, like she genuinely wanted him to be happy only no one really wanted that so he immediately found it suspect.

“Mrs. Calliope has selected a dance heavy show for the fall musical,” Ms. Terpsichore explained. “It’s an ambitious project, and one that will require a lot of male dancers.”

“What musical?” Chad asked, cutting to the point because that would make all the difference.

That time, Ms. Terpsichore’s smile became a little bit mischievous. “Cats.”

“I’ll take the failing grade,” Chad said, knowing that he’d rather throw himself off a cliff than commit to a performance of _Cats_.

Cats. As in, the show where a bunch of people dressed up like _cats_ and danced around the stage _like cats_ for like, three hours all while singing cat songs. Chad honestly had no fathomable hypothesis as to how this thing could be a cultural success, but it was, and also the school was doing it.

“Don’t be like that, Chad,” Ms. Terpsichore tutted, having the audacity to look _amused_. “Between the makeup, wig, and costuming, no one would know it was you.”

“Except my name would be in the playbill,” Chad pointed out, as he’d been to quite a few live performances in his time. “So they would.”

“Not if I decided not to list you,” Ms. Terpsichore hummed and _there_ , she finally got Chad’s attention. “It’s simple, really. We’d have your understudy – Taylor – listed in your role. He would do all the rehearsals and as long as you learn your choreography and blocking on your own time, _you_ can do the performances.”

“But why?” That seemed needlessly complicated, if the closest thing Chad could get to a perfect solution to his current dilemma. “Why not just let Taylor do it?”

“Because he isn’t ready for it,” Ms. Terpsichore explained. “But you- you’re a wonderful dancer, Chad.”

The statement was, without question, an exaggeration. Having a sense of rhythm and the ability to remember all the choreography did not make him a good dancer, it made him _competent_. At like, a useless thing. It was so unfair.

“And you deserve a chance to perform out on the stage,” the teacher continued, fully committed to her pep talk. “But if you would feel more comfortable keeping your identity a secret in order to do that, then that’s what we’ll do. I can teach you the choreography during your study period, and after you complete a weekend of performances, you’ll be safely passing my class.”

It was, frankly, too good to be true. Chad didn’t like strokes of good fortune – they rarely came his way without a price. Granted, the price of this was the humiliation of dressing up as a cat and performing in front of the entire school, but if his grandfather didn’t know about it…

“Taylor won’t say anything?” Chad pressed, deciding to focus on the more relevant issues.

Ms. Terpsichore grinned. “I already had him sign a confidentiality agreement.”

Ugh. _Curses_. His one nagging doubt had been safely handled under the one thing that could assuage his nerves – legally binding paperwork.

“I want a copy,” Chad said, and not even a second later the teacher slid it over, and he sighed again. “…okay.”

“Brilliant!” Ms. Terpsichore chirped. “Welcome aboard, Rum Tum Tugger.” 

Chad’s life was stupid. 

But it was a manageable stupid, so that probably counted for something. He hoped.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The Rum Tum Tugger was a giant dick.

That was pretty much the entirety of Chad’s character. Cat. Whatever. And honestly, he felt a little attacked that Ms. Terpsichore thought no one else was ‘better suited’ for the part when Tugger seemed mostly focused on being contrary, but he was also the womanizing cat (because of course there was a _womanizing_ cat), so Chad supposed that partially made up for it.

Also, he was calling bull on this showing off his dance prowess, because while he _did_ dance, Tugger’s part seemed to mostly focus on his singing, whereas the _Magical Mr. Mistoffelees_ (he could not make this shit up) had one number at the end of act 2 where he _only_ danced, no singing required. And he was barely in the show, unlike Tugger, who seemed to never get off the damn stage.

It was a punishment, Chad was sure, but one he took with as much grace as he could manage. 

The important part was he got through it, got through learning the choreography and suffering a costume fitting (his stupid skintight costume with a stupid tail and shoulder piece fur thing and it was all _dumb_ ) all the way through tech week, where Ms. Terpsichore assigned him to a private dressing room that had a secret entrance that was put in to sneak out what Chad assumed were celebrities, which worked well enough for him. 

He never entered the theater as Chad. Or the dressing room. There was always some degree of disguise when he finished getting ready, performed, hid in the dressing room during intermission, and then finished up act 2 before hiding in the dressing room once more to wait a few hours in his dumb cat outfit for the theater to empty out. Only then would he hazard the secret passage so he could get to a bathroom far away from any security cameras and wash his damn makeup off, quickly ripping off his wig and changing into other clothes before he made the full retreat to the dorm room he shared with Doug. 

Was it a perfect plan? No, but it was what he had. The end.

Opening night was weird. It had been strange performing with the cast all of tech week but it was stranger doing it in front of an _audience_ , wearing a skintight costume surrounded by other people wearing skintight costumes and scampering around like an asshole cat. Chad was grateful by the time it was all over, locking his dressing room and hiding inside so he can begin the mind-numbing wait. He’d have brought homework to work on if he thought he could focus that much. As it was, Chad was too hopped up on adrenaline to do anything but pace the length of the room, waiting to come down from the high of dancing for three hours. 

He’d more or less resigned himself to this before he heard a set of firm knocks against his dressing room door.

“ _Taylor?_ ” Chad froze at the sound of Ben’s voice – Ben the-nicest-human-in-existence Florian, who Chad had known was coming to see opening night because he’d talked about it at lunch, but was never supposed to come backstage. That was not a thing Ben did. “ _Are you in there?_ ”

Nope. Nope. _Nope_. It wasn’t even a lie. Chad didn’t know where Taylor was, but he wasn’t in this dressing room and also Chad wasn’t in this dressing room with a heart that felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, dressed like a dumb fucking cat. 

There was a pause, and then Chad’s mind was further blown by the sound of a key turning in a lock. Ben had- he’d used his _master key_. His magic master key that he was only supposed to use for emergencies and this wasn’t an emergency and _what the fuck_. 

Ben had the decency to look sheepish when he pushed into the room, grinning when he caught sight of Chad before rubbing the back of his head in a bashful sort of way. “Sorry. I uh… just wanted to make sure the light didn’t get left on.”

Concern for an overuse of electricity did not warrant use of the emergency master key, not that Ben acknowledged as much, the king deftly relocking the door behind him as he crossed to where Chad was standing next to the dressing room’s couch.

“You did an amazing job, by the way,” Ben continued, blithely ignoring the fact that Chad hadn’t said anything yet. “Like- _really_ amazing. I just um- wanted to tell you that.” 

Ben walked, and then he just kept walking, until he was safely leaning into Chad’s space, closer than propriety would normally allow. And this was, on many levels, entirely unfair, because _Ben_ was the one who always went on about ‘finding his perfect mate’ and how his dumb beast blood would ‘just know’, which was how he realized that he and Mal weren’t going to be a solid thing, even though they were still like, BFFs which, you know, more power to _that_ guy. 

But like, Ben didn’t do this. He didn’t approach princes he barely knew with a flush spreading across the bridge of his nose, eyes half-lidded and pupils dilated, sending Chad a variety of signals that shouldn’t mean what he thought they meant.

“You’re very graceful,” Ben- lied? Exaggerated, resting a hand on Chad’s shoulder and somehow leaning _closer_ , until his nose was buried in the crook of Chad’s neck and _what the fuck_. He inhaled, deeply. “You smell good,” he rumbled.

 _That_ was a lie, because Chad smelled like sweat and hair gel and the usual exertions that came from dancing for hours on end, and that was not great.

There was a beat, and then Ben jerked away, seeming to come back to himself with an embarrassed look. “Sorry,” he gushed, rubbing the back of his head. “Um- I don’t know what came over me.”

“…beast stuff?” Chad offered, doing his best to make his voice sound like Taylor’s, and that seemed to be enough to assuage Ben’s anxieties because the other prince immediately relaxed.

“Yeah,” Ben chuckled. “I um- I think that’s… yeah.” He seemed to lose the thread of things again, looking Chad over with an unreadable expression. “This is um- going to sound stupid, and probably out of line, but could I um- hold you?”

Chad didn’t balk because he was still too confused by Ben’s presence in the first place to consider such a thing. “…and smell?”

Ben’s flush darkened. “It sounds worse out loud, I’m sorry-”

“No um- it’s fine,” Chad said, because on one hand, he should say no, but on the other hand, he didn’t want Ben to feel bad. That was the equivalent of kicking like, a boxful of puppies, and Chad was awful, but he didn’t want to be _that_ awful. “Hold away.”

Chad still didn’t think he smelled great, but Ben didn’t seem to get the message because he was pressing himself closer to Chad, his hands settling on Chad’s hips and burning brands through the thin material of his outfit until they were flush against each other, and this was- if it wasn’t for that weird conversation, Chad would think it was a prank. That Ben had found out about Chad’s hopelessly misplaced crush on him (though to be fair, everyone had a small crush on Ben. _Carlos_ had a small crush on Ben and that guy was entirely devoted to Jane) and had decided to taunt him with it because Chad was an asshole that honestly deserved it. He couldn’t even argue that it shouldn’t happen, because despite Chad’s best efforts, his exhaustion and exposure to constant criticism from his grandfather along with his heavy workload had a tendency to make him pretty unbearable. 

It was just- he never thought Ben would try to make fun of him like _this_.

Only he wasn’t, which was probably the weirder thing. This was something Ben wanted to happen. He wanted to hold Taylor, a guy he didn’t really know, and smell him.

…it was a wonder that they let this guy go around unsupervised sometimes, it really was.

“I um…” Ben shifted uneasily, and Chad felt every movement of it because he was basically wearing nothing. “ _Shit_.”

“What?” Chad asked, wondering if this was just a thing Ben did in his downtime. Maybe it was. Maybe that was what he and Jay did at all their sleepovers.

And now Chad would be stuck with _that_ mental image for the evening.

“I um- want to make you feel good,” Ben said, his voice sounding strained.

Chad… honestly I had no idea what Ben was talking about.

“What? You wanna rub my shoulders, or…”

“I want to suck you off,” Ben said, making Chad flinch because _what?_ “I know,” Ben continued, pulling back so Chad could have space. “I’m sorry, that’s not- you don’t have to- I’m so sorry.”

“…you’re sorry you want to give me a um- _that_ thing?” Chad said, with all the confidence of a wonderfully inexperienced human. 

Ben swallowed a rough sound. Chad was pretty sure he could classify it as a whimper. “I’m a king,” he said. “I shouldn’t put you in this position.”

Chad agreed, but Chad also wasn’t Chad right now, he was _Taylor_. Which meant he should probably do Taylor-like things which um… also involved being gay.

Chad didn’t get it, of course, because if he was gay, his grandfather would beat the shit out of him, but like, it was still a pretty undeniable fact so… here they were.

He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Then again, he’d just danced a three hour musical dressed as a giant cat, so maybe he should do a better job of suspending his disbelief.

“You can- you know,” Chad said, thinking about how some of the less savory guys on the Tourney team talked about how awesome it was to get whatever action they could, likely because they didn’t have to worry about the catastrophic ramifications of accidental pregnancies like a young royal did. “If you want.”

Ben just stared at him. “You don’t have to.”

“You also don’t have to,” Chad offered, wondering if Ben might just awkwardly good guy his way out of the situation. He did that sometimes, it could happen again now, and then Chad wouldn’t have to worry about this, or think about potentially getting his _you know_ in Ben’s mouth when to this point it had been in no one’s mouth and that was probably very much for the best.

“I want to,” Ben said, and then the king’s hands were very much on Chad’s _butt_ while he breathed in again. And Chad felt it, because unfortunately the only thing he could wear under his costume was a dance belt, which was designed like a thong in the back and _what was his life_. “So good,” Ben rumbled again, giving Chad’s butt a squeeze before falling onto his knees, nuzzling against Chad’s groin.

Chad did not squeak (because they _just_ talked about this, even if he didn’t think it was going to happen), but he did startle, maybe flail, and that was enough for Ben to urge him back onto the couch, hands determined to cup Chad’s rear while he continued to nuzzle and mouth at the groin of his costume.

“B-Ben,” Chad gasped, fumbling for the king’s head with his dumb fingerless gloves.

“Wanna taste,” Ben said, somewhat ominous (oh, man, he hadn’t been bluffing, Chad had been hoping he was bluffing), and then he was pushing Chad back until he was sprawled against the length of the couch, Ben firmly between the V of Chad’s legs while he undid the belt of Chad’s costume. “Wanna taste you, please. You smell so good.”

He did _not_ , but that didn’t stop Ben from tossing Chad’s belt aside before hooking a finger on the waist of Chad’s leg tights, dragging them down with a serious dedication that made Chad whimper. If he hadn’t been interested before, he was _now_. And it wasn’t fair, it was damn _cruel_ that Chad’s sick perversion of wanting Ben to ravish him was only coming true when he was dressed like a _cat_. And also, according to Ben, someone _else_. 

“Yes, yes, yes,” Ben chanted while he eased down the dance belt, leaving Chad’s groin entirely exposed – and Chad could only be grateful that he and Taylor were both blond or else there might be some questions about the carpets not matching the drapes and-

Ben was licking him.

Loud, noisy, _desperate_ licks that made Chad swallow down a keen, because he might have thought about doing this shit with a princess before but he’d never thought about it with _Ben_ , who seemed so very determined to lick every part of Chad before _finally_ taking the blond into his mouth, which was wet and hot and _good_ , and that was before he started bobbing his head in earnest.

“ _Ah_ \- Ben!” Chad gasped, likely slipping into his own voice out of distracted but very understandable reflex. “ _Ben_.”

Ben seemed to take this as incentive to suck him harder, as though that had been possible, hollowing his cheeks furiously and applying a wet-warm suction that brought Chad dangerously close to completion. For all his talk, Chad had never gotten this far in any sort of intimate relations, and between that, the lingering adrenaline from his performance, and a perpetual sort of disbelief at his current circumstances, Chad was very, very done. Ben worked his mouth up and down Chad like a sin, relishing Chad’s groin as though it were some kind of treat. It was almost a relief when he pulled off, even if that left Chad painfully exposed, his interest throbbing against the tight material of his shirt. 

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad gasped when the other teen started gnawing at Chad’s hips, nipping and sucking in a manner that was entirely _unfair_ because that wasn’t where his mouth should be and _what the hell_ was Chad thinking? “Ben-”

“So good,” Ben growled, fumbling for something in his pocket while he pressed his face to Chad’s pelvis and _breathed_ , like that wasn’t gross. “So pretty. You’re so pretty, Taylor. And I um- I want- could I help you, more?”

“Sure,” Chad gasped, because mostly he wanted Ben to stop talking so they could go back to what they’d been doing before, only that one word earned a stupidly wide grin from the king.

“You can let me know if it’s too much,” Ben urged like the responsible human he was.

Sure, whatever, just-

Ben continued to dote Chad’s thighs with licks and kisses while he pulled out a small bottle of _something_ , that on further inspection turned out to be- _lube_? 

Why the fuck did Ben carry lube with him? Why was that a thing he would _have_ and how was he going to use that on Chad? _Why_ was he going to use it on Chad? What-

“I didn’t think I could go crazy just from watching someone dance,” Ben was saying, lube-slicked fingers sliding up behind Chad, nudging between his cheeks and- “I didn’t know I could feel like this, but watching you perform-”

“Ben,” Chad gasped when slick fingers probed at his _entrance_ , swirling and massaging and sure Chad had dreamed of this happening in sort of a distant way, but it was along the lines of _‘gee wouldn’t it be neat to fly?’_ sort of way. Like sure, it would be cool, but also totally impossible so why bother considering the full ramifications of such an act? 

Chad had never actually _explored_ that particular territory, because he was going to marry a princess so it was irrelevant, because anything else would make him _queer_ and Sardinia had no room for queer princes, except when they were being accosted by a very determined king.

“My dad said I’d know when I found you,” Ben urging, swirling and prodding and teasing Chad in vile ways that made him shake. It was because it was Ben, that was all, it wasn’t because- “And I did. I couldn’t mistake you, and I want you to feel so good.”

Slowly, ever so tauntingly, he eased a finger _into_ Chad that seemed to wreck him entirely, even though the pressure was so very miniscule in comparison to some of the punishments his grandfather had given him over the years.

There was a finger, in his butt. And instead of reacting in any kind of normal, _respectable_ fashion, Chad was moaning, a sound that only grew louder the more Ben eased the digit into his tight warmth. 

“Good?” Ben asked, breathless as he _curled_ his finger pointedly, scraping unexplored territory, beginning to pump his finger in and out. “I want you to feel good. I want you to feel amazing because _you’re_ amazing.”

Fuck, fuck, _damn_ – of course Chad’s life would come to this. It was stupid, ergo, it was his life – his dumb, dumb life, and he couldn’t even manage the strength to fight Ben. He could only lie back and take it as Ben continued easing that finger in and out of him, and then it was two, then three, and then a fair dosage of lubricant and a stream of nonstop compliments later Chad had four fingers up his ass and didn’t seem to be flagging _at all_ , Ben stopping every so often to mouth at Chad’s throbbing interest with contented hums.

“Mine, mine, mine, please,” Ben was saying. “ _Please_. This will- it will be so good, Taylor, I promise. We’ll break it to the public gently-”

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad moaned, his hips sinking back onto those long fingers with a desperation only a dipshit like him could manage.

Ben _growled_. “Need you,” he said, and before he could clarify as to _how_ , he was flipping Chad onto his stomach, coaxing his hips higher until they were jutted up like an offering. “I’m gonna- I need you, now. Could I- _please_?”

“Could you what?” Chad gasped, his breath seeming to come too fast and too shallow but then there was something blunt prodding at his entrance, far more substantial than any of Ben’s fingers, and the king whined.

“Need you,” he repeated, and that was- that was his genitals pressing against- he actually wanted to _fuck_ Chad and instead of being horrified, Chad was dangerously aroused and how was this fair? Why did he have to be this dumb? “Can I?” Ben gasped, nudging his hips forward carefully until he was better situated between Chad’s cheeks. “Please, please, _please_ , Taylor.”

“F-Fine,” Chad said instead of _‘no’_ , instead of _‘stop_ ’, because he wasn’t Prince Chad right now, he was Prince Taylor, and everyone knew Taylor was gay anyway. His parents were weirdly supportive of the development; Chad didn’t understand it. “Go for it.”

Ben did not give his thanks so much as sigh when he pushed himself into Chad’s heat, and at first the stretch stung but it was nothing, barely on the light side of pain compared to what some of Chad’s punishments were, and then that gave away to pleasure when Ben brushed against _something_ that made Chad shake.

“ _There_ ,” Chad breathed, rutting his hips backwards. “There, Ben.”

“Yes, Taylor, okay, Taylor,” Ben said, seemingly all in one rush of words. He found that spot again, dialed in on it and kept thrusting, until he was sliding in and out of Chad to the accompaniment of wet _squishes_. 

This should be disgusting – Chad was still dressed as a _cat_ – but it was Ben and it felt good, too good, and maybe that was why his grandfather had always warned him off of this. Maybe he’d thought Chad would get addicted because he was stupid and easily distracted.

“ _Taylor_ ,” Ben moaned, reaching a hand around Chad to palm his length, to squeeze and pump him until he was about to fall apart completely. “You feel so good, I want- do you feel good? Does it feel good?”

“Yes, Ben,” Chad croaked, flushing at the completeness of his humiliation. “I feel- you f-feel good.”

“I’m gonna do this every night,” Ben said, and then he was pumping Chad with a pointed squeeze that made fireworks go off behind his eyes, made him weightless in the throes of arousal until he could feel Ben falling apart too, felt himself fill up with slick that seemed to leak _out_ of him-

“Mate,” Ben said, possessive and happy. “Mate, mate- _mine_.”

“ _Ben_.” The other prince was still fondling between Chad’s legs, continued to tease and tease him until he had nothing left to give. Eventually, the two of them collapsed next to each other on the couch, curled into each other’s space, still in partial states of undress while they tried to catch their breath.

Though Chad hadn’t been watching Ben while he’d gotten… _beastly_ , it was clear that the king was slowly returning to normal, coming down off the haze of arousal to stare at Chad’s dumb cat-makeup with an open adoration that was entirely a lie.

“Wow,” Ben breathed, the bridge of his nose dusted in a pale, pretty blush. “That was um… pretty amazing.”

“It um…” Chad didn’t know what to say, could feel nothing but awkward in the wake of a fact that he’d just let another dude fuck him, even if that dude was the king.

Ben seemed to pick up on his unease. “I’m sorry,” he said with a wince. “That was… _wow_ , that was not how I wanted to do this the first time.”

With his partner dressed up like a stupid cat? Yeah, Chad could understand why that was a story Ben didn’t want to tell. Especially with the whole ‘beast’ thing following him around.

“I mean,” Ben continued. “This wasn’t how I wanted to properly meet you.”

Because there were a lot of princes in the school, and despite the fact that Taylor and Ben had been on the Tourney team together, they had never formally met. That was probably why Ben thought Taylor was his mate in the first place. 

Somehow, through the panic and anxiety and shame, Chad was struck with a mild sort of inspiration. “Then um… why don’t we pretend it isn’t?”

Ben gave him a confused blink. It was not adorable.

Okay, it was adorable.

“The next time you see me,” Chad said, willing his heartbeat to _slow down_. “This didn’t happen. We’ll start at the beginning, okay?”

Ben considered this option, then gave Chad a wide, dopey grin that had no right being as earnest as it was. “I’d like that,” he said, bending low to nuzzle Chad’s dumb wig. “Not that I didn’t enjoy this-”

“It’s just um- maybe not a story to tell our kids,” Chad said in what he hoped was an approximation of a Taylor-response, and he must have said something right, because Ben’s flush darkened.

“ _Right_ ,” the king said, grinning. “So um… maybe I should-”

“Go?” Chad said, and clearly Ben hadn’t been about to offer that but it was what Chad needed, so- “Yeah, people might start talking otherwise.”

“Oh.” Ben nodded. “Right. You’re right.”

“I have my moments,” Chad said, and was entirely unprepared for Ben to lean forward and just- _kiss him_.

Chad had never been kissed before. It was not an activity he had wanted to do for the first time dressed as a cat, with slick leaking out of him, performed by a mouth that had just been touching his genitals.

But of course that was what he had gotten, because Chad was a piece of shit and the universe knew it.

“I’m going to drag myself away now,” Ben said, continuing to be horribly charming. “Or else I am not going to leave.”

“And you need to do that,” Chad reminded him.

“Unfortunately,” Ben said with a sigh, pulling out a handkerchief and reaching around Chad to _clean his butt_ before he pulled the dance belt and tights back into place, taking care of Chad before he clothed himself, because even in this he was a perfect gentleman. “Until next time, and then we’ll never part again.” He seemed to realize the severity of that situation when he sat up, his blush darkening. “I mean, if you want to.”

Chad swallowed.

This didn’t matter, because he wasn’t _Chad_. He was Taylor.

“We’ll see,” he settled on. “After we meet, I mean.”

That earned him- earned _Taylor_ a brilliant smile that seemed determined to wreck Chad in every way imaginable. “After we meet again,” Ben echoed, and then just like he stated, Ben forced himself from the room, relocking the door behind him and leaving Chad, spent, dumb, and confused on the dressing room couch.

Later, he would freak out about this.

For now, he would just leave, on the offhand chance Ben lost his nerve and came back.

Chad was strong, but he wasn’t _that_ strong. Even he had his limits, and lovesick Ben was one of them.

What a night. What a damn night.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad spent the entire weekend terrified that Ben might revisit his dressing room after the next two shows, but true to his word, Ben stayed away, letting Chad complete his sentence in respectable isolation before hanging up his dance tights forever. 

The following Monday, no one was more surprised than Taylor when Ben asked the blond prince out. He was very gentle and earnest about it, and while Chad wasn’t there to witness the act, he didn’t doubt that Ben had committed to the ‘reintroduction’ until it was just _an introduction_ , and by the end of the school day, Ben and Taylor had achieved ultimate gay couple goals.

“Does anyone else think this is a little sudden?” Lonnie asked, watching the new couple interact at a respectable distance with narrowed eyes. “It literally came from out of nowhere.”

“I mean,” Chad shrugged. “That’s how love works, right?”

He could only theorize.

This did not comfort Lonnie.

“The last time he got like this, he’d been spelled,” Lonnie said, and they all took a moment to remember the story Mal had told them in a drunken haze of guilt at Lonnie’s birthday party. 

Chad still wasn’t sure why he’d been invited to that, but the gossip had been good, so he couldn’t really complain.

Aziz shared a look with Chad, who honestly had nothing for him. “It’s not like you could get him into the Enchanted Lake again,” he said eventually. “At least, not without a reason.”

An expression settled on Lonnie’s face that never boded well for any of them. “We’ll see about _that_ ,” she said somewhat ominously.

A few days later, she unceremoniously tossed a vile of Enchanted Lake water in Ben’s face, and what should have been categorized as low-key assault became a story they all got to laugh about as Ben assured her he hadn’t been spelled, and while he appreciated her efforts, maybe like- _ask_ first. 

Mal gave Lonnie a high five and told her she had already checked the king over, and while Taylor had giggled, Ben had only looked up at the ceiling in despair. 

It was…

Well, it _was_. 

Ben and Taylor were sappy even if Ben didn’t seem as relaxed as he probably should be, all things considered. Chad would feel guilty for the deception, were it not for the fact that Taylor was substantially better than Chad in a multitude of ways. If anything, Ben was getting an upgrade. He should be thanking Chad.

He wouldn’t, but he _should_ be, was all Chad was saying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real talk, I don’t know where the idea for this story came from, though it likely has to do with seeing that Cats movie with my mom for her birthday. The design was a mess, but compared to the musical, it was significantly more streamlined, with forward momentum and stakes. 
> 
> Somehow that led to this, and the random stroke of inspiration my mind decides to grab at in the hours of early morning when I am still struggling towards coherence. Thank you, mind. You weird, weird place.
> 
> UPDATE – I know in my last story I mentioned that this would be a short interim before I posted my long anniversary fic, but I actually did the math wrong, so this is one of two short fics I will be posting before I share my anniversary fic on December 2nd. Sorry about that, but hey, more Descendants goodness in the meantime, yay!! 
> 
> This story will consist of 4 chapters of story content. As always, please let me know if I missed something in the tags. I prefer to ere on the side of caution with these things, but when you stare at something for long enough, it can be easy to lose the details :)
> 
> I update once a week, generally on Sundays, but because things have been so crazy lately, I decided to make an effort to update twice a week. So there will be one update on Sunday and one update on Wednesday/Thursday for now :D 
> 
> Just a heads up – I update the story tags as I go in order to avoid spoilers. So characters, pairings, content warnings – all will be updated in correlation to the appropriate chapter as they are posted. 
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> Terpsichore is a character from Hercules the animated series. She is the muse of dance, and while I have never bothered to watch the full episode, I figured I could use her instead of just like, inventing a new dance teacher.
> 
> Calliope is the muse of Epic Poetry – she’s the head muse in Hercules, which I figured was close enough to drama to count as the theater teacher. 
> 
> Also – in my own private Descendants canon I call Chad’s kingdom, which is canonically ‘Cinderellasburg’, Sardinia, because it is less dumb. You are all free to use this alternate name if you prefer, just give me a shoutout in the endnotes ;)
> 
> Google Rum Tum Tugger and you’ll see that the original costuming for Cats quite literally covers the actor’s entire body, which I think makes it believable enough for Chad to perform without anyone recognizing him.
> 
> Taylor is a name I stole from the movies. He’s the guy Coach puts on shooter when Jay and Carlos are walking onto the Tourney field. I have appropriated him for the sake of this story.
> 
> Until next time :)


	2. Setting the Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GENERAL WARNING – Scene two features some homophobic language and slutshaming (one F-bomb). 
> 
> WARNING – Non-Graphic Assault/Abuse – featured in the second scene – please see endnotes for more details.

It all came to a head one innocuous Tuesday, when everyone was laughing and coexisting in a state of relaxed peacefulness the VKs rarely managed, Ben with one arm around Taylor while the blond shyly leaned into his contact, soaking it up.

“I’ll be honest,” Ben was saying, coy and charming as always. “I’m sort of amazed you agreed to go out with me, seeing how um- forward I was when I met you backstage.”

Taylor’s smile slid off his face slowly, the other performers from the musical sharing looks with each other, mimicking Taylor’s confusion.

It was Aziz who spoke up. “You went backstage during rehearsals?”

“Oh… no.” Ben was slowly picking up on Taylor’s unease, as were the VKs, who seemed especially attuned to their surroundings. “I meant after the opening night performance.”

At that, Taylor actually _did_ freeze.

Ruby cleared her throat. “Um, Ben…?”

“Taylor didn’t perform opening night,” Lonnie cut in, kind enough not to beat around the bush.

Mal tensed at that, but Ben’s confusion was extensively worse. “…what?”

“I didn’t actually do any of the performances,” Taylor explained quietly, breaking his confidentiality agreement with a casual sort of disregard, because that was what you did when the king had an arm around you and you discovered you weren’t the cat he was looking for. “I was the understudy.”

“The real performer’s identity had to be a _secret_ ,” Lonnie explained, her voice in a conspiratorial whisper. “I overheard Ms. Terpsichore talking about it. Apparently his family is like, _super_ homophobic. He almost failed dance because they wouldn’t let him do any of the performances.”

“What?” Ruby expression fell into something of empathetic pain, the heir to Corona unable to fathom such a thing. “That’s _awful_.”

Chad was still reeling, burdened with that knowledge that while his identity had remained a secret, his circumstances apparently hadn’t, even if they’d been misconstrued. His grandfather wasn’t homophobic, and Chad wasn’t, you know, _gay_. The duke just had very strong ideas as to how a prince should behave.

And sure, Chad had a crush on Ben, had let him- _you know_ , but everyone had a crush on Ben. That just made Chad human.

“I know,” Lonnie sighed, tapping her tray distractedly. “It sucks because he’s really good too. Like, he learned all his choreography in _a week_ , and that was all by himself.”

“That’s… terrible,” Ben said, and even all his training could not hide the look of conflict in his features, which he shouldn’t really have because Taylor was awesome and Ben had been happy with him.

“What did you do with the other guy?” Mal cut in curiously. “What was so forward?”

“Um.” Ben flushed, a dark and immediate thing that made Taylor tense.

“Ben, you _dog_ ,” Jay laughed, sharing a grin with Mal. “Did you give Rum Tum Tugger a good _tug_?”

“This isn’t funny,” Taylor said, his hands curling against the table.

“Taylor.” Ben looked pained and sort of at a loss for words, which wasn’t a thing he ever did. “I-”

“Was that- was _he_ the only reason you asked me out?” The question made the table fall into a tense, uncharacteristic silence – one that, for once, was focused on Ben. “Because of the way he danced? All that stuff you said?”

“I’m sorry.” In this, Ben was at least genuine, his honesty without question. “Taylor, I really am. But I- I saw him and I just _knew_.”

“It’s my fault.” Taylor was shaking his head, already collecting his lunch tray as he moved to stand. “It was so random, you asking me out, but you’re so _nice-_ ”

“I’m sorry,” Ben repeated, torn between helping him and his own confusion.

“It’s fine,” Taylor dismissed. “I just- I need some space.”

“Okay.” Ben watched helplessly as the other blond just _walked_ away, Ben making no effort to follow him.

“I’ll go after him,” Ruby offered, and then she was gone too.

“Wow,” Carlos said after a few beats when Ben seemed well and truly dejected. “So you’ve got a mate now, but you don’t know who it is.”

“It’s got to be one of our classmates, obviously,” Mal said, already reviewing the situation. “So it’s probably someone you already run into on a regular basis. Wouldn’t you recognize them?”

“I should,” Ben seemed frustrated and sad, which- he’d get over it. Chad did, on a regular basis. “I didn’t _feel_ a connection until I saw him dance, though. And then when I got close enough to smell-”

“So you’d recognize his scent?” Evie interrupted, latching onto the problem with a scientific focus.

“I should,” Ben repeated. “But I haven’t. I didn’t with Taylor.”

“Because it wasn’t Taylor.” Mal surmised, waving a hand so they could move on. “But what about anyone else? Have you caught a whiff?”

“ _No_.” Now Ben seemed miserable, which, for the record, didn’t tug on Chad’s heartstrings.

How someone danced or the way they smelled did not discern them as a life partner, and thinking as much was stupid. Also, Chad definitely needed to marry a princess and was not attracted to Ben. Like, he was sort of attracted to Ben, but not _really_ attracted to Ben. The end. 

“Can a scent be blocked?” Carlos asked. “I mean, if you get the right chemical compounds-”

“You could search for the absence of a scent!” Evie chirped, lighting up with excitement. “Look for all the guys that fit the right physical profile who are taking a dance class.”

“Someone who had missed all the other performances,” Aziz said, his brows furrowing. “Since his family wouldn’t let him perform, right?”

The others were on a roll brainstorming, but it seemed like that comment was enough to set the wheels in motion for Lonnie, who seemed struck by a small moment of contemplation before her eyes settled on Chad.

Chad did not panic. Chad had the perfect cover; in that he was an asshole.

“Don’t look at me,” he said, waving her off as he stabbed at the pasta he was never going to eat. “I was sick.”

“For every performance?” Lonnie pressed, her brows raising in a dubious expression.

Their conversation had been a small aside to the bigger discussion, but Mal was unfortunately sitting close enough to eavesdrop.

“ _Please_ , like it could be Chad,” she dismissed, rolling her eyes. “There’s no way he’s that good a dancer.”

“E- _xcuse_ you,” Chad sputtered even though he was happy for her backup. “I’ll have you know I mastered the jazz square just last week.”

“See?” Mal said, waving him off. “If Chad fails dance, it’s because he’s lazy and uncoordinated, not because his dad’s secretly a homophobe.”

Like his dad would talk to him. 

“I am _not_ ,” Chad huffed, fake affronted but entirely glad for Mal’s interference. She was such a good sort-of friend.

“What are you guys talking about?” Carlos asked, bringing the table’s attention to their side conversation.

“Chad’s the only one in dance class I know who’s missed all the recitals,” Lonnie said, folding her arms across her chest.

“But there’s no way it could be him,” Mal said, Chad nodding along in solidarity. “Ben, just like, give him a whiff or whatever so Lonnie will stop going on about this.”

“Yeah, no,” Chad said, moving away from the table. “I’m good. Keep your nose to yourself, thanks.” Because he was definitely wearing scent blockers, had been ever since the performance.

_That_ had been a tricky black market find, but in one of Chad’s rare instances of ingenuity, he’d managed to be successful for once.

Mal shot him an annoyed look. “We are trying to clear you.”

“I’m already cleared,” Chad shot back. “I hang out with Ben all the time.” That was a lie. “If I was his mate, he would have figured it out by now, but also, _I wasn’t in Cats_.”

“Sounds like something someone in Cats would say,” Jay noted, leveling his fork at Chad with a cocky smirk. 

Chad rolled his eyes. “Whatevs. I’m out, losers-”

The thread of whatever he had been about to say ended when he felt a nose _shove_ against the curve of his neck, and once more it seemed like Chad had underestimated the lengths Ben would go to for his so-called ‘mate’. 

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad huffed, trying to step away.

The baboon followed him. “You don’t smell like anything.”

“Because I shower,” Chad snapped, batting at the hands Ben had clamped around his hips. “Now, let go.”

“Why don’t you smell like anything?” Ben pressed, taking another inhale.

Because Chad went through a lot of effort to smell like _detergent_ or _evergreen_ or _a soft breeze_ but not like whatever his basic biology produced what made Ben so hot for him.

“We’re going in circles,” Chad muttered, pinching Ben’s fingers. “Let _go_.”

“Why did you take dance?” Lonnie cut in suddenly, drawing Chad’s focus from the retreat he should be making because eventually more of the surroundings tables were going to stare at the way Ben was clinging to Chad and someone would take a picture and then he would be grounded forever.

“Because I thought it’d be an easy credit?” Chad hazarded while he tugged at Ben’s stupid fingers. If anything, the other prince cuddled closer to him, molding himself to the contours of Chad’s body. “I was also wrong.”

“And it’s not because you like dance?”

“I am ambivalent towards dance,” Chad declared, hoping he wasn’t blushing, because this was stupid, Ben was stupid, they were all stupid.

“You feel good,” Ben murmured, nuzzling Chad’s shoulder. “Smell wrong, but you feel-”

“Get _off_ , Ben,” Chad snapped, tired of this bullshit, and at last, the other prince followed his request, stepping away from Chad with an audible whine. 

The rest of the table stared at him as though they were looking at him for the first time, splitting their focus between the tension of Chad’s shoulders and Ben’s more animalistic behavior.

“Holy shit,” Mal muttered, likely having figured it out.

Well, that was just great for _her_.

“Chad,” Ben said reaching a hand out towards him. “I’m sorry I thought Taylor-”

“I don’t care about your love life, Ben,” Chad snapped, shouldering his bookbag and abandoning his lunch tray. Jay would eat it anyway, that guy wasted nothing. “Bye, guys.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Carlos repeated, and that was all Chad heard before he stormed away, blocking out memories of _Ben_ and desires of _Ben_ and focusing on what he needed to do, which was get ahead of this stupid cat thing because if his grandfather found out, Chad’s head was going to be on the chopping block. 

Perhaps maybe even a literal one. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

For the record, Chad did not get ahead of the cat thing.

Because he had unfortunately missed the presence of his arch nemesis Audrey sitting just a table over, who had started filming Ben’s descent into stupidity the moment Chad had stood up from the table, likely hoping to catch him doing something stupid or embarrassing so that she could post it online for all the world to laugh at.

Chad hadn’t read the comments on the video because he did not have a death wish, but he _did_ have to deal with an unexpected yet foreboding visit from the Duke himself.

At least he had met Chad in his dorm room, alone, instead of drawing things out in public. His grandfather likely figured that Chad had already made a big enough fool of himself and Sardinia that day. 

Upon confirming Doug’s absence (Doug, who was at chess club or jazz band or with any other accumulation of his many _friends_ because he wasn’t a tool), the Duke cleared his throat, looking very imposing with his sturdy wood cane, the brass knob handle gleaming beneath his gloved hands.

The Duke was not one for wasting time, so he cut straight to the point. “There are rumors that you are starring in the school’s production of ‘Cats’.”

Chad had learned a long time ago never to attempt lying to the Duke, and yet, in that moment, he desperately wanted to do so anyway. “I wouldn’t say _starring_ -”

“Do you have any idea how this reflects on Sardinia?” the Duke snapped, surrendering to his anger now that the worst had been confirmed. “To know that its heir is parading around on stage like a damn _pansy?_ ”

“I just- I needed a performance credit,” Chad rushed to explain. “Ms. Terpsichore arranged it so it would be a secret.”

“Except it isn’t now, is it?” the Duke snarled. “Now it is but speculation, but with Prince Benjamin’s little fit in the cafeteria…”

Chad felt himself pale, ice gripping at this chest. “That doesn’t confirm anything.”

“That doesn’t confirm that you let another prince molest you after dancing around dressed as a _cat_ for three hours?” the Duke growled. “It _didn’t_ confirm that? Because he certainly seems to think that was the case, and again, you manage to make Sardinia the laughing stock of all the kingdoms of Auradon.”

“I’m sorry,” Chad whispered, feeling like the walls were closing in on him. “I’m sorry. I don’t have to do anymore performances-”

“You damn well _won’t_ ,” the Duke spat. “Now or ever.” He gripped his cane tight in his hand, readjusting his hold so his fingers were wrapped around the wooden pole of the cane, allowing the brass knob to waver like a true threat. “Sit down.”

Chad didn’t hesitate, despite the conflicting tumultuous swells of confusion and fear spiking through his chest. Normally, his grandfather bent him over his knee for this part, or had Chad splay across the bed. This order was new, and while Chad knew what would follow it, _how_ it would do so filled him with a distinct sort of terror.

“Legs out,” the Duke order, motioning with an impatient wave. 

Chad complied as best he could, letting his legs spread out before him as he sat with his back against the foot of his bed.

The Duke levered his cane at the ready, eyeing Chad with a palpable sort of disappointment and disgust that seemed to mar all their interactions. “Do not make one sound,” he said, and Chad could only nod, could only press a hand against his mouth because he would rather appear weak and quiet than try and brace himself and fail. It earned another point against his competence, but Chad didn’t care. He needed to get this over with as quickly as possible.

He was ready when the Duke pulled the cane back. He was less ready when it descended upon his right ankle, sending a wave of staggering pain up Chad’s leg.

He cried reflexively into his hands, which seemed to make the Duke’s next hit harder, then harder, his grandfather attempting to bash all sides of his foot and ankle until it was a throbbing, broken mess. 

“I had thought better of you, Chadwick,” the Duke said between blows, watching tears of pain roll down Chad’s cheeks with his usual apathy. “I thought you could restrain yourself on your own, but clearly you lack the self-control to keep yourself from committing to such _vile_ performances. I do not like doing this to you-” There was a particularly painful _whack_ that definitely fractured or broke his foot in its wake. “-but if you cannot manage the simple composure to act according to your stature, then I will do it _for you_.”

Chad tried not to twitch, not to flinch away despite his body screaming for him to do so, his foot and ankle a mess of pain that radiated angry, throbbing stabs that made Chad kiss his brief yet stupid dance career down the drain. Fuck, it might make him kiss _walking_ down the drain, because it hurt so very much and the Duke still didn’t seem satisfied.

“You’re a stupid boy, Chadwick,” the Duke growled when he finally paused, his chest heaving with exertion. “Willingly submitting to the king. Do you _want_ the citizens of Sardinia to look on you as a whore? Desperate for sex with little regard for how it’s achieved?”

“No,” Chad gasped between his fingers, knowing that the question was far from rhetorical. “Of course not.”

“Of course not,” he spat, tone mocking, and then the base of the cane was pressed pointedly against Chad’s crotch, increasing in pressure until a new wave of tears leaked from his eyes. “ _‘Of course not’_ , he says, and yet you would gladly spread your legs for the _prospect_ of relief-” 

“I didn’t-” Chad’s protest was cut off with a pained _scream_ that he had to muffle between his hands, the Duke redirecting his focus to directly hit between Chad’s legs now. “Please, please- _stop-_ ”

“Stupid boy,” the Duke muttered, the favorite of his pet names for Chad. “Stupid, useless boy. I should pull you from this school entirely – you are clearly unprepared for it.”

“Grandfather-”

“That’s _‘your lordship’_ to _you_ ,” the Duke spat, reminding Chad of the privileges he’d lost so long ago. “You’re a failure, Chadwick. Fundamentally dislikeable and now, in addition to that, a _faggot_.”

“I’m not,” Chad gasped, shaking his head, vision blurring because he couldn’t stop crying. “I’m not, I _promise._ ”

“Save it,” the Duke said, and finally – _finally_ he seemed done, with Chad’s right foot practically useless and his groin radiating a level of pain Chad wasn’t sure he could ever recover from. “I will try to mitigate some of this nasty ‘mate’ nonsense. You, in turn, will lay low and _try_ not to create any more problems.” He set his cane down again, resting his weight on it and letting Chad know that the punishment was well and truly done. “After I leave, crawl to the window and jump out of it,” he said, already turning away. “That will explain your foot injury. Tell them you were feeling especially emotional, or something. That you weren’t _thinking_.”

“Yes, your lordship,” Chad whispered, holding still while his grandfather exited the room with a sweep of his coat, the door locking shut behind him because he’d had a copy of Chad’s room keys for as long as he could remember.

It took a gargantuan effort for Chad to slowly drag himself across the floor to the window seat positioned a deceptively far distance away. Every shift made Chad _ache_ , his groin throbbing and leg claimed in a slow but steady fire, and all of it was bad and would likely to get worse when Chad fell on them, but those were his grandfather’s orders, and if Chad didn’t follow this much after messing up so terribly-

He didn’t want to think what would happen. He knew it would be bad.

Fresh tears leaked from his eyes when he pulled himself up onto the seat, and his mouth was open as he gasped painful lungfuls of air. He needed to get a hold of himself. If he had been strong enough to manage a trip to the bathroom, he would have cleaned up first, but he’d always been pathetic. It was truer now more than ever, and Chad mostly wanted to hide.

But he couldn’t do that until he fell from his third story window, and then he could pretend his baby tears were from _that_ pain instead of the lingering dread of his failure. People would buy crybaby Chad, especially after the video Audrey had uploaded without his permission.

The wind caressed him with a gentle freshness he did not deserve when he got the window open, and he tried to focus on that – on the cool night and glittering stars rather than the potential fall, his heart squeezing in his chest. Pulling his legs out in front of him was another difficult challenge, but not impossible, and then he was just sitting on the window ledge, waiting to commit his grandfather’s one and only order. He probably wouldn’t be able to get the nurses to look at his groin, there would be no explanation for it, so he’d have to just deal with that pain. That had likely been his grandfather’s intent the entire time. 

“Chad?” The voice startled him out of his reverie, and Chad looked over to find Jay, of all people, clinging to the trellis, lingering just under his bedroom window. “Are… are you jumping?” 

“ _No_ ,” Chad snapped, hastily wiping at his face. “What do you want, Jay?”

“I um… want you to go back inside,” Jay said, his voice uncharacteristically kind. It was the same way he talked to Evie or Carlos when they were feeling worked up, a kind sort of familiarity Chad hadn’t earned, and he immediately hated it.

“I’m getting fresh air,” Chad sniffed, hiding his face as best as he could from the other teen.

“You could do that with your legs inside.” Jay was climbing higher, drawing closer to Chad’s position.

“Would you just _fuck off?_ ” Chad snapped, looking away. “I can enjoy the evening however I want. And if _this_ is it-”

“Precariously balancing on a ledge that’s too small for you?” Jay offered, climbing higher. “Chad, just go inside. We can talk about what happened-”

No, they fucking _couldn’t_. “Fuck _off_ , Jay,” Chad hissed, using Jay’s presence as an excuse to shift suddenly, until his risky position unquestionably worsened. “Don’t act like we’re friends. Did Ben send you?”

“Mal did, actually,” Jay said, having the audacity to look worried. “After we saw the video Audrey posted-”

“I’m fine.”

“Seriously, dude.” Jay wasn’t buying it. “Go back inside. You’re gonna fall.”

“Then I’ll _fall_ ,” Chad snapped, swallowing down the swell of anxiety to let his balance fail completely, until he was sliding off the window ledge.

He was gonna fall, it was gonna hurt, his ankle was going to snap like a twig if it already hadn’t-

Except somehow, Jay managed to catch him. 

“Holy _fuck_ ,” the ex-thief said, yanking Chad close to him as he managed to snag the prince before he passed by completely. “Shit, Chad – whatever your grandfather had to say couldn’t have been _that_ bad.”

“Fuck _off_ , Jay,” Chad repeated, words half-sobbed because Chad wished it wasn’t that bad, wished _he_ wasn’t that bad so he wouldn’t get hit so much, so his grandfather and his father would love him like a good prince would be.

“Just… climb back up, dude,” Jay said, squeezing him close. “You don’t have to-”

“I _can’t_ ,” Chad snapped, trying not to watch the way his right foot uselessly hung there, twisted at an angle that was _just_ slightly past the edge of natural. 

But he failed, because he was a failure, and Jay followed his gaze, letting out a quiet string of curses at the sight of it. 

“What the hell, _what the hell_ ,” he chanted as he tugged Chad close. “I can’t believe Lonnie was right.”

“Lonnie wasn’t right,” Chad hissed. “Now, _let me go_.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Jay declared, serious. “We’re not covering up grandpa’s crimes. Mal?!” 

The sudden call threw Chad off balance, enough that he didn’t immediately recognize when Mal poked her head out _his_ window, like maybe she’d broken in too, or maybe Doug had let her in-

“What the fuck are you guys doing?” she asked, and yet she still moved to help, trying to work with Jay to pull Chad back into the window when it was the last place he needed to be.

“We need to get Chad to the infirmary,” Jay said. “His grandfather-”

“ _Let me go_ ,” Chad snapped, struggling against Jay’s hold. “I just need to-”

“Did that asshole _order_ you to jump down two stories?” Jay asked, and then at Chad’s stunned pause, started cursing again. “ _What the fuck?_ ”

“Just keep him steady, Jay,” Mal ordered, her small fingers gripping at Chad’s shoulders. “Come on blondie, up you go.”

“ _Stop_ ,” Chad sobbed. “I’ve got to-”

“Go to the infirmary?” Jay said as they tugged him inside, sealing his fate on another simple order he had yet again failed to complete. “Yes, you do. How kind of you to notice.”

“It’ll be okay, Chad,” Mal said, wiping at his tear tracks despite the fact they weren’t friends. “He won’t get away with this.”

“There’s nothing to get away with,” Chad gasped, and at that point the two of them decided to ignore him, Jay scooping Chad up and marching him down the hall with Mal at his side, her eyes glowing a furious shade of green. 

Useless. He was _useless_. He couldn’t even fall out of a window right.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Waiting in the infirmary was just as awful as Chad expected it to be, because this time Jay was there to give his take on the situation whether it was true or not, rarely letting Chad get a word in edgewise, even if he was generous enough to keep an arm wrapped around Chad’s shoulders for stability. Mal had disappeared almost as soon as they’d gotten to the infirmary, and Chad would worry about that but he was too busy trying to correct Jay’s (unfortunately accurate) depiction of what had happened, because Chad hadn’t been _assaulted_ , he’d been punished, and there was a difference.

“I fell,” he said anytime they asked him, the nurse looking at the swollen, bruised mess of his foot and knowing there was no possible height he could fall from in his dorm room that would generate that amount of damage.

“Chad,” Jay would sigh, but he wouldn’t let him go. Maybe he was just feeling stubborn.

“ _I fell_ ,” Chad repeated, pretending he wasn’t huddling closer to Jay but definitely doing that. 

This was stupid. _He_ was supposed to be the knight in shining armor rescuing some damsel, but of course he was the pathetic creature dripping snot all over his sleeves because his grandfather had to be a little strict with him. As though Chad had any face to lose. 

“Do you have any other injuries?” the nurse asked, just trying to do her job, and in that moment Chad wished Jay was far from him, because there was no missing the way Chad tensed. Sitting on the examination table had already been a trial, though Jay had likely attributed that to Chad’s injured foot. If he hadn’t carried Chad the entire way there, he would have known about the other punishments the Duke had left Chad with.

Chad swallowed. This was dumb enough as it was. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Just the foot.”

Jay sighed again. “ _Chad_.”

“…if you fell twice, it would make sense for you to have more injuries,” the nurse offered carefully, watching Chad’s pained expression.

If Chad had fallen right the _first_ time, maybe he could have played this off, but-

But his groin was _really_ starting to hurt, enough that he was getting concerned, enough that it was hard to think.

Chad cleared his throat. “I um… I might have fallen on…” He trailed off with a humiliated flush, motioning to his crotch.

That time, Jay’s curses were entirely in Agraben. 

“Do you want him to go?” the nurse asked, and Chad tensed, even though that was an entirely reasonable question he should say yes to so Jay wouldn’t have to waste time on him-

“I’m staying,” Jay declared, insistent and unyielding.

Chad could have melted with relief. 

He would have to figure out a better way to handle this later, but for now he was relatively safe within the infirmary. The Duke couldn’t be _that_ mad at him, right? 

“I’m going to give you a little something for the pain,” the nurse said, and then things might have gotten a little hazy.

Shortly after that, the darkness claimed him, and Chad gratefully surrendered to it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad woke up in gradual increments, buoyed by a delightful haze that made the realization that he actually _was_ awake take longer than it normally would have. It took him longer to register the numbness that usually accompanied pain medication, and not just any medication, but the good stuff Chad had to scramble to procure from the black market. The Duke must have really fucked him up this time, for Chad to be this disconnected. He hoped he hadn’t messed up the dosage.

It was those small worries that gradually brought his attention to the rest of his surroundings – to the twin bed beneath him, comfortable and clean, to the neutral warm tones of the room – not his dorm room, but somewhere else. He was wearing different clothes too, a hospital gown?

Ah, _fuck_. He must be in the private treatment area of the school’s infirmary. Because Auradon Prep catered to so many royals, they had created a special wing just for treatments in order to ensure the young royal’s protection. 

Aw, damn. Ah, hell. He wasn’t supposed to get himself hospitalized; the Duke was going to be so _pissed_. 

“Chadwick?” Chad blinked over to see Fairy Godmother sitting next to his bed, a worried expression pinched on her features. Jay was nowhere to be seen, but there was a detective from the Inspector’s Office hovering closer to the door, looking grave. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

“…I’m not,” Chad settled on, trying to catalogue his body’s condition. Nope, still numb. “What happened?”

Fairy Godmother offered him a tight smile, the same one she used whenever she tried to give him peptalks to get better grades. “Jay brought you in a couple of hours ago, dear. Your right foot and um… pelvis had sustained a lot of injuries. Multiple breaks and fractures for your foot and ankle, and your pelvis…” she trailed off with a swallow. “Well, that won’t be a problem for long anyway. Now…” She seemed to refocus herself, pulling out of her mild sorrow to face Chad directly. “I wanted to ask you a few questions, if that was okay.”

“Alright,” Chad said, figuring there wasn’t much harm in it. “I might not be good at answering them, though.”

She gave him another tight smile. “Just do your best, okay?” It was the same thing she said at their meetings, and Chad had the feeling that just as he had in all those, he was going to fail now too. “Now, could you tell me how you sustained those injuries?”

Chad’s response was immediate. “I fell,” he said, his hands curling into the soft material of the blanket. “Twice.”

“Right.” Fairy Godmother was kind enough to nod slowly, even though she clearly did not believe him. “Do you know why you fell?”

Chad tensed. “Because I’m… clumsy,” he settled on. “And stupid.”

“Is that what your grandfather told you?” she asked, her voice so very gentle, and it was a lie, a _lie_ , because no one was that nice to Chad.

He didn’t know how to respond, so he settled for being vague because doing anything else would confirm a falsity. “My grandfather wants me to be better. I’m not good, so he has to be strict with me, sometimes. That’s not a crime.”

“That’s not,” Fairy Godmother agreed. “But beating your grandson is.”

Chad flinched, curling back against his pillows. “He didn’t- I _fell_.”

“Chad.” There was pain in her eyes, and Chad would know it because it was a feeling with which he was intimately familiar. “…Douglass’s webcam was running during your grandfather’s visit. Miss Bertha and Douglass already turned the footage in to the Inspector’s Office.”

She already knew what happened, was what she meant. She already _knew_ , but she wanted to hear it from Chad. Chad, who had to live with the knowledge that his private dress-down had been _recorded_ , that other people were going to see how weak and pathetic he was.

“It wasn’t a beating,” Chad said, trying to correct course while he attempted to handle the growing panic of Doug potentially watching the footage. “I told you, I’m stupid. Sometimes I can’t learn without the Duke having to take more _extreme_ measures. That’s not his fault, it’s mine.”

“No, Chadwick.” Her eyes were getting all glossy now, wet with unshed tears. He was making his mom’s Fairy Godmother _cry_. Damn, did he suck. “It is entirely his fault. He’s the adult in this situation, he should know how to communicate his needs without resorting to violence. That’s not your fault, and telling you that it _was_ is just another form of abuse.”

“He didn’t abuse me.” Chad’s face was beginning to feel warm, his eyes burning in frustration. “He punished me, yes, but I deserved it. I mean, I’m an asshole. The whole school knows that. I’m _supposed_ to be charming but I’m so stupid and dislikeable-”

“Chad.” She reached forward, her fingers curling through his so he could no longer continue his stranglehold on the blanket. “I promise you, there is nothing you could have done to deserve that. Not dancing in the musical. Not having the king develop a crush on you.” Chad flinched at that, but she kept going. “Not even failing a test or a class. It isn’t warranted, Chad, and that’s why… why your grandfather was arrested this evening.”

With her gaze still locked on his, she reached for the remote on his nightstand and turned on the television mounted to the wall, where a muted image of his grandfather’s arrest was being played. 

“They’ve had it on loop,” she explained, though Chad was too busy choking on his own failure.

“D-Don’t arrest him,” he whispered, feeling himself start to tremble. “Please. Don’t- not for that. If I’d been better, he wouldn’t have wanted to do it. He didn’t _want_ to do it, he just had to, because I’m not good-”

“Chadwick James.” That was her teacher voice, firm and true and unyielding. “You are _very_ good, and I am somewhat of an authority on goodness.” She had graced his mother with her magic, so Chad supposed that might be true. “Your grandfather must take responsibility for his actions – that is not a negotiation. I’m here now because we need to know how many times Duke Francis has ‘punished’ you before, and what injuries it resulted in.”

“He didn’t,” Chad sniffed, wiping at his eyes. “I fell. I _fell_.” 

He was such a fucking loser. Not only had he blown his cover, he’d managed to get his grandfather _arrested_. 

Now who would love him? _Ben?_ The only thing Ben liked about him was the way he danced and his scent, and both were things Chad could easily lose. He had _nothing_.

“I fell,” he repeated, hoping that if he didn’t own up to his other punishments, his grandfather’s sentence might be reduced. Fuck, what if they sent him to the Isle of the Lost? Because of _Chad_? 

He’d doomed his grandfather; he was so dumb. He was useless and stupid. 

“It’s okay, dear,” Fairy Godmother lied, squeezing his hand. “We don’t have to talk about it now.” Or ever. “Why don’t we focus on the positives? After you’re released from the infirmary, you’re going to come live with me and Jane!”

Jane and Fairy Godmother had a private cottage located close to campus for their convenience. While Jane had the option of staying in the dormitory, she ultimately ended up spending most of her time with her mom in that cozy looking home that Chad admired from a distance, and while a small part of him was excited by the prospect of seeing _inside_ that house, a greater part of him was confused.

“I don’t understand,” Chad said, perhaps the most predictable response from him. “Can’t I just go back to my dorm room?”

Fairy Godmother’s smile tightened. “I thought it would be best for you to remain off-campus throughout the course of the investigation. At least until the media lost interest. You’ll be doing your schoolwork from home.”

Right, that made sense. But-

“Then shouldn’t I go back to Sardinia?” Chad asked. Maybe that was too far away. Still, that was his home.

It was a poor sign that Fairy Godmother didn’t even try to keep the smile on her face as she considered his question. “Your father’s under investigation too, Chad,” she explained quietly. “Right now we’re not sure if he’s capable of properly taking care of you.”

Wait, that was- the entire thing was _preposterous_.

“He doesn’t have to take care of me,” Chad pressed, wiping frustratingly at his cheeks. “He’s a king, he’s got a lot more important things to do than look after me.”

There was a tense pause, and when Chad looked up, Fairy Godmother looked entirely stricken. What had he said wrong _now_?

“Chadwick, dear,” she began quietly. “Even though he’s a king, he has certain responsibilities as your father that have to come first. Whether he’s a king or not, he _has_ to take care of you.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Chad sniffed. “I’m irritating, and a nuisance. He shouldn’t have to deal with me until I learn to be better.”

“Is that what your grandfather told you?” she asked again, intent on digging into that wound.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Chad said, glaring down at his blanket while fresh tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. “…are you going to arrest my dad, too?”

“No, dear,” she said, and Chad could have sobbed, he was so relieved. At least he had kept his dad safe, at least he’d done that much. “But things will be different going forward.”

“Like me staying at your house?” Chad asked, trying to get a feel for the lay of the land.

She offered him a small nod. “Yes, sweetheart. Among other things. But we’ll figure it out together, alright? You and me and Jane, we’re gonna be like three peas in a happy little pod…”

She trailed off when her gaze flickered towards the television screen, and Chad looked towards it just in time to catch what must have been Doug’s webcam footage playing on a _public_ _news network_.

“What is this?” Fairy Godmother asked while Chad watched a sniveling version of himself sit on the ground, bracing his legs out in front of him. “How did they get this?”

“I don’t know,” the inspector said, speaking up for the first time just as Chad’s grandfather smashed his cane down on Chad’s foot, the Chad on the screen flinching reflexively in pain. “There must have been a leak-”

“Well, _do_ something about it,” Fairy Godmother said as the cane continued to fall and fall, as the entirety of Auradon got to see what a giant baby Chad was, tears already leaking from the corners of his eyes from a few measly blows. 

“I’ll call it in now,” the inspector said, but it was already too late.

Sardinia would never respect him now. He would never be king. And now he couldn’t even fall back on dancing, because he’d fucked that up too.

“Let’s just turn this off,” Fairy Godmother said, doing just that. 

It wouldn’t stop the rest of Auradon from watching, though, wouldn’t make Chad’s humiliation less thorough, or public. He hated himself. He hated, he _hated_ -

“It will be okay, Chad,” Fairy Godmother lied, petting a hand through his hair. “You’ll see, it will all be okay.”

It wouldn’t be, but it was a nice thought. A nice lie. 

Maybe for once he could be stupid enough to believe it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, you stuck around for the second chapter of this nonsense, thanks for that! And more importantly, thanks for all the lovely kudos and feedback you guys gave last chapter!! It is greatly appreciated!!
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> WARNING – Chad’s grandfather assaults him in the second scene. Like in some of my previous stories, he hits Chad with his cane. If you would like to skip this, look for: 
> 
> “Chad complied as best he could, letting his legs spread out before him as he sat with his back against the foot of his bed.”
> 
> You can jump back in at: 
> 
> “Yes, your lordship,” Chad whispered, holding still while his grandfather exited the room with a sweep of his coat, the door locking shut behind him because he’d had a copy of Chad’s room keys for as long as he could remember. 
> 
> Until next time :)


	3. Intermission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GENERAL WARNING – This chapter features a lot of self-loathing and unhealthy conditioning as a result of abuse. 
> 
> GENERAL WARNING – Internalized homophobia in the 3rd scene, leading to some mildly derogatory language.

“There is one light in this dark tunnel,” Fairy Godmother said sometime later, when Chad had exhausted his tears like the giant baby he was. “Because you are my Fairy Godson, in a manner of speaking, I put in a special request to the king to be allowed the use of my wand.”

She revealed the magical item with a swirl of her fingers, the powerful tool so many had fought over cradled between her hands.

“I thought… I thought knowledge was your magic now,” Chad sniffed, wiping at his cheeks again in case he’d missed any of the tears from before.

Fairy Godmother smiled. “I’m making an exception, now. You shouldn’t… I don’t want you carrying around these wounds with you, Chad. Ella wouldn’t want it and I certainly don’t, so I’m going to heal your injuries before you come home, okay?”

‘Home’, she said, likely a slip of the tongue because she meant _her home_ and not _Chad’s_ home, because he apparently didn’t have one of those anymore.

Chad should probably ask more questions, ask _why now_ when he’d been hurt so many times before, but eventually the pain medication was going to fade away and it was either weeks of no movement followed by intense physical therapy or an instant band aid born from guilt.

Chad would take the band aid.

“Okay,” Chad said, swallowing to clear his throat. “I’m ready.”

Fairy Godmother’s magic consumed him in a shower of sparkles, something he would have been awed by were it not for what it had taken to earn them. His mother had gotten them by being kind, by being beautiful both inside and out. She hadn’t even been looking for the prince when she’d gone to the ball, she’d only wanted to see her friend the apprentice. 

All Chad had done was be a failure. There was nothing noteworthy about that. No one was going to write a story about _that_. 

No one would care.

When the lights faded, he could feel himself be healthy and whole again, knew without question that his foot wouldn’t fail him. He felt revitalized too, like all the exhaustion had been sucked from his bones – but that, he knew, he would ruin in time. There would be no sleep for him tonight. Not with that news story playing. Not with the world _knowing_.

“There.” Fairy Godmother grinned, letting her wand vanish with a flick of her hand. “All better?”

Chad did his best to force a smile – normally one of his greatest tricks, and knew he failed by how wrong it felt on his lips. “All better,” he lied. “Thank you, Fairy Godmother.”

Her smiled dimmed a little, but she kept it in place because she was a fairy of _positivity_ and _light_ and Chad was just a fairy. “You’re welcome, dear. Now, let’s see about getting you home.”

“Okay.”

Chad wondered how long it would take for another scandal to blow this mess over. Probably forever, knowing his luck.

At least he’d get to see the inside of that cottage, though. That was something.

He decided to hold onto that.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Moving in with Fairy Godmother was eight parts weird and two parts amazing, because the cottage was just as cozy and welcoming as it looked on the outside. Fairy Godmother gave him the guest bedroom, a somewhat apologetic look on her face, though Chad wasn’t sure _why_ – sure, the room was smaller than the one he had back home but this one felt like a room instead of a museum display, one that he had to keep tidy to the last speck of dust for fear of retribution from his grandfather. The guest room even had a quilt that looked hand stitched, and while Fairy Godmother didn’t say as much, Chad was almost certain it had been made by his mother. 

He spent his first night in the cottage curled in that quilt, pretending his mother was hugging him by extension, pretending she would be proud instead of disgusted by his actions. 

Fairy Godmother had all of Chad’s schoolwork delivered to him so he could work from his new room, and it was sort of nice to just focus on that and not worry about any of his grandfather’s extra assigned studies. It was less nice that he couldn’t get in contact with any of his family’s lawyers to check the progress of his grandfather’s criminal proceedings, and he couldn’t get through to his father (Chad never could, but he’d thought this time maybe his dad would make an exception – he hadn’t), so he was just sort of stuck twiddling his thumbs and waiting for the media to die down and latch onto a different scandal so he could go back to school.

The one benefit of all this was that it gave him a perfectly good reason to avoid Ben. 

At least until Chad had gotten a full week of blessed silence, and then Ben had come to _him_. 

“Chad, dear,” Fairy Godmother had said, pulling Chad away from an essay he felt like he was actually making progress on for once. “Ben’s here to see you.”

A low buzz of panic filled Chad’s stomach. “No,” he said, eying his window as though the other prince would spring through it if Chad let his guard down. “I don’t want to see him.”

Because this was an understandably rude thing, Fairy Godmother’s expression turned sad. No, _disappointed_. Even worse. “I won’t make you, sweetheart, but you might both feel better with a little… closure.”

Right. Okay, yes, of course she was right. Chad needed to rip the band aid off this ‘mate’ thing or Ben was going to bother him until the end of time.

“Okay,” Chad said, and she must not have expected that sort of maturity from him because she literally _blinked_ in surprise.

“Oh,” she said. “He’s downstairs in the sitting room, if you really want to-”

“I want to,” Chad lied, and then he untangled himself from his mother’s quilt and forced himself down the stairs. 

At least he was confronting Ben on home turf. Sort of. At least Chad had a room to retreat to.

Ben had been perched on the edge of one of the couches, his head slumped towards the floor, when Chad had walked in. He was immediately on his feet the moment he saw Chad, a series of complicated and unfathomable emotions flickering across his face before he settled on _want_. 

“Chad,” he said, his gaze apologetic. “I’m so sorry-”

“Don’t- it doesn’t matter,” Chad said, waving him off. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Ben, who had been in the process of forming an objection, blinked, clearly thrown off by the abrupt shift in conversation. “Get what over with?”

“This mate stuff,” Chad said, trying not to roll his eyes. “You should date Taylor – the end.”

Chad was pretty sure that was something they could both agree on, only Ben looked stricken by this suggestion. “I don’t want to date Taylor, I want you.”

“No, you don’t.” Chad actually did roll his eyes that time. It had been a losing battle from the start. “We’ve hung out with each other since we were kids, Ben, if you wanted to date me, you would have probably figured it out by now.”

“But I hadn’t seen you dance before,” Ben said, stepping forward with a stupid noble determination in his eyes. “I’ve never seen you be that _free-_ ”

“That’s stupid,” Chad snapped, wanting to fold his arms but knowing that would only look defensive. “You’re stupid. You should go.”

“ _Chad_.” Ben was wounded now, his dumb majestic brows furrowed in a look of hurt. “Please, I know you want this too. After what we shared together-”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Chad snarled, losing the fight to maintain his cool because Chad _wasn’t_ cool, he was an asshole. “Go home, Ben. You don’t owe me your sympathy or your honor or whatever. Go date Taylor – he’d be a great consort for you.”

Ben’s expression shifted into a look of frustration, a warbled growl seemingly swallowed in his throat. “That’s not how it works, Chad. It’s just you. Only you-”

“Shut _up_ , Ben,” Chad huffed. “And get out.”

Ben needed to be anywhere but here, doing important world-changing things and not feeling bad for the wimp that had gotten a little teary eyed after a light beating.

“No Chad, please.” Ben fell to his knees. His _knees_. He was on his dumb knees and he was still so tall as he inched forward, reaching for Chad. “This last week has been awful-” 

“You’ll get over it,” Chad snapped. “Look, I’m doing you a favor, Ben. You don’t see it now-”

“ _Chad_.” He might be crying now. Chad might have made the king cry. What a fuck he was.

“-but you’ll thank me for this,” Chad continued on as though he couldn’t see Ben’s sorrow. “You’ll find someone else whose scent you like, whose dance appeals to your inner beast or whatever, and I’ll…”

Never get a princess, at this rate, so he’d have to settle for one of the petty noble girls back in Sardinia that had clambered for his affections once upon a time. There might be less now, but there would still be some shallow girl willing to put up with his baggage for the sake of being queen.

“…be fine,” Chad settled on. “It will be great. Now go home.”

“Chad,” Ben whimpered, hands curling towards the blond but hesitating to make contact. “Please. I promise things will get better. I promise-”

“Go home, Ben,” Chad said, and then he left, because he had always been especially horrible at comforting crying humans, at comforting anyone. 

Chad would know, he’d never been able to comfort himself. It was actually kind of sad.

He was pretty sure he heard Ben sobbing when he strode out of the room, but honestly, the guy would be fine. Better even, now that Chad was helping him. He would see that, eventually. 

These things just took time.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Things progressed at the slow and steady rate of _abysmal_ while Chad stayed comfortably locked away in Fairy Godmother’s cottage. Not that he minded, because it felt like a home with pictures and people and life, and he actually loved that a lot – loved the desk he got to work at with the nicks in the polished finish and his mom’s quilt and the way Jane would hum under her breath or the fact that they sat down and had dinner together once a night like a real family.

Were it not for the fact that Chad’s humiliation had been broadcasted to the world and his grandfather could go to the Isle because of Chad’s stupidity, Chad would think the Duke’s arrest was one of the best things to ever happen to him. It was a selfish thought, further proving _why_ Chad was so horrible, and he tried not to dwell on it. 

At the very least the recording that had been shared with all of Auradon hadn’t had any accompanying audio, meaning they hadn’t heard the Duke berate Chad. There were a few attempting to read their lips, but the camera wasn’t _that_ good of quality, leaving Chad as the only reliable witness as to what had been said. And seeing as Chad sure as hell wasn’t going to share any of what had transpired, he figured his grandfather was at least closer to safe than he would have been otherwise.

“Chad,” Fairy godmother said one evening when Chad was reviewing notes for his history test. “Sweetheart, your father was cleared for a visit. He’s downstairs if you’d like to talk to him.”

Chad froze, mostly caught off guard by the suggestion more than anything else. Chad hadn’t had a real conversation with his father since… he couldn’t actually remember. He was sort of surprised his father wanted to do so now, but then again, Chad had just gotten _his_ dad sent to like, jail or something, so the king probably wanted to talk about that.

“Okay,” Chad said, deftly putting away his notes. 

The room was cozy but it still needed to be neat. There were _standards_ that a prince such as Chad needed to obey.

“You don’t have to,” Fairy Godmother reiterated. “You don’t have to, but the option is available – I wanted you to know that.”

“I… appreciate that,” Chad said, not really understanding her logic. If the king wanted to speak to Chad, who was he to say no? It so rarely happened. “But I want to.”

That time when Chad went to the living room, Fairy Godmother accompanied him, settling down in one of the arm chairs while Chad took the loveseat across from the couch his dad was sitting on. 

When she saw Chad’s confusion, she offered him a tight smile. “Your visits have to be supervised,” she explained. “King Ben gave me the clearance to do so on the court’s behalf.”

“Oh.” That… made no sense, but it wasn’t like Chad was going to turn away Fairy Godmother. She was _Fairy Godmother_. “Okay.”

“Chad,” his father spoke up, looking tired, and a little bit sad. “I… I’m so sorry.”

_Huh_ , Chad hadn’t been expecting that. “It’s okay, dad,” Chad assured him, beginning to feel a little less anxious. “It was my fault.”

Fairy Godmother tensed up. “Chad-”

“No.” Chad shook his head. “I know how a prince is supposed to behave and I messed that up.” Like he always did. “Grandfather was right to be upset, I made Sardinia look bad and…” he swallowed, but kept himself resolute because if he didn’t say this firmly, then who would believe him? “I just- I want you to know I’m not _gay_ , or anything. I’m going to marry a girl someday, I promise, after everything um… dies down.”

Maybe he’d marry a girl from the Isle, one who didn’t know him, who wouldn’t care who he was. Someone _strong_. The prospect of power he could offer her might be alluring enough to make this hypothetical human put up with him.

Instead of taking any comfort in this, Chad’s father seemed… _pained_ , would likely be the best way to put it, and Fairy Godmother didn’t look much better.

“Chad…” His father began slowly. “I don’t- I don’t care about that.”

Through years of practice, Chad managed not to flinch. “Right.” Of course, his dad didn’t care about most of the things he did. “Just- on the offhand chance you were worried.”

“No.” His father shook his head slowly. “I mean, if you like boys, I don’t care. That’s- there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m not- that’s not a thing I’d be disappointed about.”

“But…” Chad felt his stomach turn to stone, his cheeks filling with an uncomfortable warmth as he reviewed everything his grandfather had ever told him. “But then I’d be a um… _sissy_ , and no one would take me seriously.”

Granted, no one was going to take Chad seriously anyway because they’d watched him cry like a giant baby, but if the collective of Auradon somehow managed to get over _that_ , no one would take him seriously.

Both his father and Fairy Godmother tensed. 

“Is that what your grandfather told you?” Chad’s dad asked, looking like he was afraid of the answer.

Chad wasn’t sure why though; he was sure his dad had gotten all the same lectures. Unless- unless the Duke hadn’t had to do that because his dad was so heterosexual it wasn’t even a _concern_ , whereas Chad willingly signed up for dance class and dressed up like a cat and let a king fuck him into a couch.

Oh, damn. He actually _was_ a sissy. _Fuck_.

“Yeah,” Chad sighed, latching onto the question because otherwise he’d have a breakdown over that. How was he going to marry a girl now? “And I already do a really bad job representing Sardinia-”

“You don’t, actually,” his father interrupted, so quickly Chad just had to breathe, because that was the first complimentary thing the man had said to him in a very long time. “You represent our kingdom wonderfully, and you always have. Who you love doesn’t affect that, and I’m… I’m sorry I allowed your grandfather to let you think that over all these years. I just- I want you to be happy, Chad, and I know now that I failed you.”

Before Chad got a chance to respond (not that he knew what he would say in the first place), Fairy Godmother cut in, her voice hard, “How could he be happy if you never talked to him?”

Somehow, the king looked abashed. “I feared my depression would drag us both under,” he admitted. “I see now I was wrong-”

“Dad.” Chad’s chest ached and he didn’t know why. “Dad, it’s okay. You’re a great king-”

“But a horrible father,” the man interrupted, looking so very sad over this fact. “I…” He drifted for a moment, then seemed to refocus, his gaze on Chad. “You’re going to stay here for a bit, Chad, until I can prove I’m prepared to take care of you the way I _should_ be – being present both mentally and physically for you. That’s going to take time, but know now that my absence is not any slight against you. It just… needs to be done. And-” He swallowed, then nodded. “If you and Benjamin really are a couple-”

“We’re not,” Chad said, feeling his cheeks heat with a humiliated blush. “We’re not, _I promise_.”

“If you _were_ ,” the king continued. “I support you a hundred percent, and I love you.”

It went against everything Chad had ever been taught, everything he’d ever known, and that was confusing in itself, let alone his father saying he _loved_ him. His father talking to him, seeming to care for him – Chad didn’t know if it was a show for Fairy Godmother or just pity. It was very confusing.

“Okay,” Chad said eventually, because he didn’t have anything else. “I um… love you too, dad.”

He guessed. He didn’t know his father very well, but he seemed like a good man.

Chad likely misread the pain in his father’s eyes, but then the king was smiling, so it had probably been nothing. “I’m allowed to visit once a week,” he explained. “And I can call, too. And if you have any extracurricular activities, I can see you in those as well.”

For a moment, Chad was unspeakably grateful that he’d already completed his performance credit for dance, otherwise things would have gotten a lot more awkward.

“…cool,” Chad replied, like a doofus. 

‘ _Cool_ ’. He’d wanted some kind of parental presence at his school activities for years, it just- he’d given up on ever getting it. 

And, to be honest, he was pretty sure his dad had more important things to do than watch Chad compete in Swords and Shields. 

There was an awkward pause.

“Okay, then,” the king said. “I’ll um- just be going then.”

Chad stood when he did, because he was a _king_ , and was surprised to find himself pulled into a hug. Which- was it for show? He wished he had answers. He guessed his dad didn’t hate him after all for what had happened to the Duke, and Chad guessed he couldn’t be _that_ vile if the king was willing to touch him. 

That was something. Probably.

Or he was reading into things again.

“Come back soon,” Fairy Godmother said with a sweet smile when they waved the king away, and Chad…

Didn’t know what to think, but he supposed that went well. Probably. 

_Probably_.

-:-:-:-:-:-

So.

Chad was a sissy.

That was… not great. 

Or, maybe it was? His dad had said he hadn’t cared, and Fairy Godmother didn’t seem to care, and Taylor’s parents didn’t seem to care that _their_ kid was gay, but like, what if it was a thing Chad was supposed to read between the lines of? Like they _said_ it was fine but he should know that it wasn’t, only his grandfather knew how stupid he was so he was the only one who explicitly told Chad.

It was confusing. 

Chad didn’t know who he should ask about it. Ben seemed fine with being gay and he was king of Auradon. In fact, none of the gossip magazines or media posts had been especially cruel towards him for his desires, so…

Chad didn’t know. He just didn’t know.

_Could_ Chad be gay? Like, was that a thing he was comfortable doing in public? Granted, he’d never been with anyone, so he didn’t really know how it felt to be part of a couple in the public eye, but like- _theoretically_ …?

The one thing he knew for certain was that he could not, under any circumstances, _bother Ben_.

Ben was good and honest and kind and noble. 

And Chad was a shithead.

So even if Ben _thought_ Chad was the one for him – well, he was obviously wrong. He was just confused, and if Chad cared about him in any way, he wouldn’t encourage Ben’s misplaced affections. Besides, if Ben was serious, he wanted Chad to be like, Queen of Auradon, and Chad was barely qualified to be prince of Sardinia, let alone an acting authority for the united kingdoms.

So he needed to help Ben. Help him find someone new. It was the _kind_ thing to do.

The only question was how.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Do you have something against Taylor?”

“What?” Chad looked up from the carrots he had been chopping for stew to meet Jane’s expression of interest, the other girl disregarding the pile of celery that was in front of her in favor of staring at Chad.

“Taylor’s gay,” Jane explained, because Chad was publicly quite stupid so she probably thought he hadn’t realized that yet. “Do you have anything against him?”

“…no?” Chad didn’t understand the question. “I’ve been trying to get Ben to go back to dating Taylor, but he won’t listen.” Chad turned his gaze back to his carrots, and then he was struck with a sudden thought. “Do you have any ideas about how to make that happen?”

Jane was smart, she could probably think of smart-people arguments that Ben might listen to.

Jane didn’t seem to be expecting that question. “I don’t think Ben’s going to change his mind,” she said eventually, and she was _smart_ so that was probably true, and Chad had just doomed himself by dancing in public and having a nice smell. “So you don’t have anything against gay people at all?”

“No.” Chad shook his head. 

No one else seemed to have an issue with it; he wasn’t sure why _he_ would.

“You just… don’t want to be known as gay,” Jane surmised. “Right?”

Chad felt himself blush. “It’s just- I’m already useless enough as it is. I can’t add _‘won’t produce an heir_ ’ onto that.” It had pretty much been the only thing Chad _couldn’t_ screw up before this whole ‘gay’ mess started spreading around.

“What if I made you an heir?” Jane asked, and for a second Chad thought she meant like – _the old fashioned way_ – and there was an intense moment of embarrassment before he remembered that Fairy Godmother had created Jane from her own magic – with no father involved at all. 

If Jane could produce him an heir from magic as well, Chad supposed it wouldn’t be so bad, being gay.

“…that would be better,” Chad settled on, because at least that much was true. “Would you do that?”

“If that was the only thing holding you back?” Jane said. “In a heartbeat.”

_Whoa_. 

That was easily one of the nicest things anyone had ever offered Chad. And granted, he knew she was extending this offer more for Ben than she was for _Chad_ , but the thought was still nice.

“Thanks, Jane,” Chad said, because over anything else, he was grateful. “That a big weight off my mind.”

The other teen beamed at him, though Chad didn’t know why, because _she_ was being the nice one. “I’m happy to help,” she said, and Chad was even inclined to believe that was true. “Are you gonna talk to Ben now?”

“Oh.” Chad blinked, overwhelmed with a sudden rush of anxiety and terror before he shoved both away again. “No. Definitely no. I wouldn’t do that to Ben.”

“You wouldn’t do _what_ to Ben?” Jane echoed. “Date him?”

“Exactly.” Chad nodded. “He can do a lot better.”

There was a pause, during which Jane gave him one of those unfathomably sad looks that Chad always felt uncomfortable in the wake of, which was a shame, because they seemed to be happening to him a lot nowadays.

“Ben doesn’t think so,” she said eventually.

“Well, Ben’s only human,” Chad said. “He’s just as capable of making mistakes as anyone else. And sure, he thinks I’m great now, but after like, four dates he’s going to realize I’m an asshole-”

“I wish you’d stop saying that about yourself,” Jane said in that especially quiet voice of hers.

Chad sighed. “It’s _true_.” She knew it, he knew it, the whole school knew it. Where was the lie? “My point is, he’s going to realize I’m not what he wants sooner or later, so we may as well avoid the trouble altogether and just like- _not_ date.”

And then Chad didn’t have to be his ‘Gentleman of the Court’ or whatever for Cotillion. He could just be Chad, the guy who failed so much he had to get beaten by his grandfather.

Jane was frowning. “You shouldn’t make that choice for him.”

“I _have_ to make that choice for him,” Chad said, exasperated. “He doesn’t understand how stupid I can be. _I_ do. And if I want to be kind-”

“You’re not stupid,” Jane pressed, her eyes wide and soulful like they usually were when she was defending one of Carlos’ Isle quirks.

This conversation was getting them nowhere.

“Just drop it, Jane,” Chad said, turning back to his carrots because _they_ didn’t need anything from him. “I’m not what Ben needs. And if he can’t see that now, he eventually will. That’s all that matters.”

Maybe by that point, Chad could show his face in public again. 

Just- maybe. 

He hoped.

-:-:-:-:-:-

One of the many benefits of staying with Fairy Godmother was that Chad didn’t have to review any of the additional studies Chad’s grandfather would have insisted upon. Which in the long run probably wasn’t great, because Chad needed those studies to be less awful, but the good news about _not_ having them was that Chad didn’t get information mixed up so easily. Focusing solely on his Auradon Prep schoolwork allowed the facts to actually settle in his brain, until going through his homework had actually become a speedy process. It was super cool.

Chad was in the middle of finishing up an essay (an essay he didn’t have to second guess or show to one of his extra tutors to mark up and berate only for him to like, get a C anyway) when he heard a knock against his window, and for a brief second he was afraid it might be Ben before he remembered that the king had a tendency to use doors for their intended purposes as opposed to windows.

That was what had allowed Chad to approach the window at all, and when he pulled back the curtain it was to see Jay perched on the garden trellis, offering Chad a slight wiggle of his fingers in greeting when he caught sight of the prince.

Chad was sincerely tempted to leave the guy there, to close the curtains and go back to the essay that had been going so well.

But.

Jay rarely ever reached out to him, hadn’t since the whole _thing_ , and Chad supposed they needed closure too. 

He opened the window.

“Hey, Chad,” Jay greeted casually, as though the last time he had seen Chad hadn’t been when the prince was a sobbing mess. “Can we hang out?”

“I don’t know,” Chad said, but he still waved him inside, shutting the window behind him. “I’m trying to decide if I’m mad at you.”

“Mad at me?” Jay echoed, confused by the statement. “Why? I caught you.”

“Yeah,” Chad agreed. “But if you hadn’t, my grandfather probably wouldn’t be arrested right now.”

“Dude, Doug would have checked his web camera eventually,” Jay replied. “So yes, he would be. I just saved your body from taking unnecessary damage.”

Chad considered this with a weary sort of reluctance. “…fine,” he said, perching on the edge of the guest bed, letting his fingers run over this mother’s neat stitches. “I guess I’m not mad at you, then.”

“Good.” Jay said it like he meant it, like he actually gave a shit about Chad’s opinion. He even sat on the bed next to Chad, despite there being a perfectly good chair right by the desk. “I wanted to check up on you.”

“I’m still not dating Ben,” Chad said, wanting to get that out of the way as soon as possible. 

It was best to be _direct_ and _concise_ with what you wanted in life.

Jay blinked at him. “That is not why I came,” he said, seeming to shift closer. “Though, fair warning, Mal will _definitely_ be visiting you about that sooner or later so like- prepare yourself.”

“Okay.” Chad nodded, appreciating the heads up. Jay didn’t have to give it.

“Is your foot okay?” Jay asked, gaze drifting towards Chad’s ankle. “I heard that Fairy Godmother was allowed to heal you with magic. Could I… could I see?”

“Um… sure.” Chad shrugged, pulling off his sock before rolling up the hem of his slacks – because even if he was lazing about inside there was no reason he shouldn’t be up to princely standards. He slid his leg up onto the bed for Jay’s inspection, and was surprised when the other teen actually touched him, taking Chad’s foot into his lap so he could feel and press against his very whole ankle.

“Wow,” Jay said, with a complete lack of irony. “That’s… wow. And…” He looked down, a warm flush seeming to spread across the bridge of his nose. “Um… the other place?”

Chad froze, humiliation and shame welling in his throat, because Jay had been there, he’d _heard_ -

But hell, the rest of Auradon had seen what happened too, Chad wasn’t sure why he cared now.

“Is that okay?” Jay pressed. “Could I um…?”

Chad found himself standing and moving away from the bed before he could really think about it, because even he wasn’t stupid enough to miss Jay’s implications. “Just because I let Ben fuck me doesn’t mean I’m a _whore_ , Jay.”

“Hey, no, I didn’t say that,” Jay rushed to explain, standing with his hands held out, like he was trying to calm Chad down. “I’m sorry, that was stupid. That was actually, _literally_ the worst- I’m usually better than this.”

“At _what_?” Chad snapped, his shoulders tensing in a horrible way. “At getting into people’s pants?”

“That wasn’t why I came here,” Jay insisted. “Well, obviously I had hoped _-_ ”

“Go _away-_ ”

“But I’d hoped because I like you!” The words came out in a flurry, ending with Jay sliding onto his knees before Chad, looking up at him with big, beseeching eyes. 

It was an unfortunately familiar sight.

“I like you,” Jay repeated when he saw that he had Chad’s attention. “And I’m sorry I never realized all the shit you were going through – evil knows I should have figured it out with all the villains I grew up with-”

“Don’t say that.” Chad flinched. “It wasn’t that bad. Besides, I deserved it.”

“No, that’s how they win,” Jay said, reaching forward to squeeze Chad’s hand. “They say that we deserve it but no one deserves that. _No one_ , Chad.”

Chad wanted to say that it wasn’t true, that Jay didn’t understand. Didn’t realize that Chad was expected to be better, expected to be the _best_ and that he often fell so terribly short, but Fairy Godmother said he was doing okay and his _dad_ said he wasn’t all that bad and Jane seemed to think he was alright so maybe… _maybe_ Jay was a little bit correct.

Chad still wasn’t sure where this sudden affection had come from, though.

“Look,” Chad said. “This is um… really flattering, but I really don’t know what you’d like about me aside from my willingness to have sex with dudes, so-”

“You’re funny,” Jay cut in, making Chad’s mouth snap shut. “You’re a stickler for rules, and at first I thought that was because you were a fuddy duddy, but then I realized you just didn’t want to do anything wrong. You’re weirdly neat and clean and even though you never apologized to Evie for making her do your homework-” The like, _one_ time in Chad’s life where he’d gotten an A, and then Chad couldn’t even date the pretty girl because he’d gotten queasy every time she’d puckered her very pretty lips and he was so tired and overworked and broken. “-you bought her like, eight years’ worth of material and notions and pretty much jump started her business by putting in orders for dresses that you gave away as free publicity.”

Chad hadn’t realized Jay had known that. He hadn’t thought _anyone_ had known that, but he’d felt so bad for Evie, who was talented and deserved good things, whereas Chad was untalented but had good things he didn’t really deserve, so sharing them had seemed like a no-brainer. 

“You’re a team player in Tourney, and even though you helped make Parents’ Day the like, worst afternoon ever for us-” This was not a good pep talk. “-you were standing up for what you thought was right, even though you were obviously uncomfortable, which I didn’t see until later. So.” Jay squeezed Chad’s hands. “There are a lot of other reasons why I like you, I just didn’t realize I had any kind of shot with you until now.”

_Oh no_ , the weird stomach flutters Chad got when he thought about Jay sometimes were coming back and he hated those things, because they made him feel _weird_ and distinctly un-princely.

“But… what about Ben?” Chad asked, swallowing roughly as he tried to process this influx of information.

“What about him?” Jay challenged. “You said you didn’t want to date him.”

“I don’t,” Chad confirmed, his heart beating faster at the mere thought of it. “But he’s your friend, right? Isn’t there like, a code about this stuff?”

Chad only knew the theoretical stuff pertaining to relationships, he didn’t have any real practical experience with either that or how friendships applied to the mix.

“Maybe,” Jay allowed. “But we’re not _that_ good of friends. And um, you might not know this but…” He slowly rose to his feet, until he and Chad were standing almost chest-to-chest, sharing air. “-I’m just a little bit _wicked_.”

“That’s not why you want to do this, right?” Chad asked, a new swell of panic building. “I’m not just forbidden fruit?”

“No, Chad,” Jay said, but he wasn’t exasperated, he was just _sure_. “No, I like you. I’ve liked you for a while. I just thought it was hopeless.”

He stepped forward and there was just- a lot of contact, and Chad didn’t even mind and he wasn’t even scared about the fact that he didn’t mind because it felt so very _right_. Jay was dashing, all the girls loved him. It was probably okay if Chad liked him too, that was like, an _objective_ hotness.

“Um…” Chad swallowed, flushing when he caught Jay staring at his lips. “I don’t… I don’t know what I can offer you. It might not be much.”

“I appreciate your honesty,” Jay said, tilting their foreheads together. Somehow, it managed to be just as intimate as Ben fucking Chad on the couch. “And I’m a greedy soul, so I’ll take whatever you can offer.”

“Okay,” Chad said, and Jay um- kissed him.

And then they kissed again, and again, until maybe they sort of made out a little.

_Maybe_. 

And it was… yeah, it was good.

So that was neat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the lovely feedback and support!! It warms my heart to know that I created a villain so awful that the immediate removal of him is met with a whole lot of enthusiasm ;) Happy to do it, guys, and now we can focus on Chad’s other issues!!
> 
> And yep, all that cred Jay earned last chapter managed to fall to pieces. This is but another example of Jay trying and failing so hard to be smooth. I have the perpetual belief that when it like, actually matters, he is incapable of navigating romantic situations without being the most awkward of beans. 
> 
> Until next time :)


	4. Final Bows

Jay’s window infiltrations became a nightly occurrence, and after the fourth one Chad managed to work up the courage to broach a subject he’d been growing worried about.

“Um, Jay,” Chad said after they’d finished making out and Jay was allowing Chad to cuddle against his side on the bed, and it felt really nice but also sort of scary with how nice it was. “If um… if we- hypothetically, are in this for the long haul, then um… you might end up being the queen-equivalent for Sardinia.” Chad paused, unable to miss the way Jay tensed underneath his hands. “Are you okay with that?”

“I…” To Jay’s credit, he at least thought about it, which made Chad feel better, weird as it was. “I won’t be that good at it.”

“That’s okay,” Chad said. “I won’t be a good king either.”

That made Jay laugh. “I pity Sardinia, then,” he said, making Chad’s chest feel all tight before he continued with- “Okay,” he said. “I’ll try, for you. Do you think they’d be cool with me playing professional Tourney for a few years?”

“Would they be okay with you being really cool and talented in public?” Chad asked. “Sure. Just don’t get caught in one of those weird sports scandals.”

“You also play sports,” Jay reminded him. “You don’t have to pretend like you have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Hmm… what was that?” Chad asked, and then Jay kissed him, lips tugged up in a smile, and it was good.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad pretty much had it made. He had Jay safely confirmed as his essentially-a-queen, he had Jane assure him that they could have a magic baby, and his studies were going better than ever, so maybe he actually _would_ be a good king for Sardinia.

It was sort of overwhelming to have so many things going well for him for once, and he guessed that registered in his mood because Fairy Godmother picked up on it almost immediately.

“How are you doing, Chadwick?” she’d ask, because she _cared_ , because she wanted to know the answer to the question and if Chad’s answer was less than okay, then she wasn’t upset with him or thought he was whining but genuinely tried to help him through whatever was bugging him at that exact moment, which seemed to be happening less and less as time went on.

“I’m great!” Chad chirped, Jane perking up from where she was working on her schoolwork in the kitchen. She used to do that on-campus with her other friends, but she’d been coming straight to the cottage after school more often than not, and at first Chad had felt guilty about it, but then she had assured him that she wouldn’t be doing it if she didn’t want to. “I got a B on my report!”

A ‘ _B_ ’. Chad had never scored so high on a written project before. He had just about broken into tears when he saw the grade in the online learning portal. 

Immediately, Fairy Godmother brightened up, her smile stretching wide to echo Chad’s own. “That’s lovely, dear, we should celebrate!”

“ _Oooh_ , let’s order in!” Jane suggested, and she wasn’t even mocking him because she was on the Honor Roll and got A’s all the time, but Chad usually got C’s and D’s because he was dumb, except maybe he wasn’t anymore? 

And he felt bad about slacking on his extra studies, but it was nice not to get the facts mixed up, and definitely nice to have downtime for once that he could spend with Jay, who had somehow managed to get a recording of _Cats_ and insisted on watching it with Chad so he could spend the entire time complimenting the prince’s performance as Rum Tum Tugger. 

“Could we um- get Imperial City food?” Chad asked, because his grandfather had never liked him dining on such ‘ _common cuisine_ ’, when the food of Lonnie’s homeland was anything but.

“Dumplings and chow mein!” Jane cheered. “Maybe we should order ice cream too. Is there a flavor you wanted to try?”

“Um- Doug seems to like Rocky Road,” Chad offered, because his former roommate had been all about the stuff, though Chad had never been allowed to procure it himself. “Hey um- if we’re celebrating, could I invite Jay?”

Fairy Godmother paused as though surprised by the request, but immediately melted into a smile. “Yes dear, the more the merrier.”

Chad had worried for a hot second that Jay might not want to come, had worried that maybe the Agraben preferred for their relationship to remain a secret, but he showed up with the delivery guys bearing a to-go container of warm chocolate chips cookies straight from the dining hall.

“Since we’re celebrating,” Jay said, a knowing look in his eyes like he’d caught all the times Chad had stared longingly at their cookies, knowing it’d go against his image to dabble in such things.

“You’re the best, Jay,” Chad said, and the Agraben eagerly leaned down to reciprocate his kiss, which was great until Chad realized that he hadn’t really mentioned anything to Fairy Godmother and Jane. 

But when he looked back at them, they didn’t seem surprised. If anything, Fairy Godmother seemed a bit knowing.

“I have privacy enchantments on the house,” she explained as they started unloading the food and piling it onto plates. “They alert me whenever we have visitors.”

Which meant…

“I’m not upset,” she assured Chad, something she always made sure to do because Chad wasn’t great at guessing other people’s feelings about him, had a tendency to assume they would be the most negative reactions, but the therapist he’d just started seeing was helping him work through that. “I’m glad you two are comfortable with each other, and I’m happy you have Jay to support you.”

“Um…” Jay said, clearly not expecting the good turn of events. “I won’t… I promise I’ll do my best not to hurt him, Fairy Godmother. I don’t- I know my dad’s-”

“Not you, sweetheart,” Fairy Godmother said with a knowing look. “And you’re not him. If Chad trusts you, I trust you. Now please, trust yourself.”

Oh, that was- that was a great pep talk.

Chad had come to learn that Fairy Godmother had many of them, and he loved hearing just about all of them. 

“I… thanks,” Jay said awkwardly, and then all of them gathered around the kitchen table and had a family dinner. Jay regaled them with funny mistakes from Tourney practice and Jane passed on some of her trials from being mascot and Fairy Godmother talked about public incidents from Auradon Junior Prep, because it turned out preteens were just as dramatic as teenagers and it was really nice and fun.

Afterwards, they cuddled on the couch together to watch a movie and eat ice cream and cookies, but not before Fairy Godmother coaxed Chad into calling his father to share the good news with him.

“I um- I got a B,” he explained, which seemed kind of pathetic in hindsight. “I… normally I don’t um- score that well, because of all of grandpa’s extra studies – I mean, that’s not an excuse, but now I- I got a B.”

Chad’s father stared at him for a moment, seeming confused, but then he pushed on. “ _That’s great news, Chad. I’m glad for your success, but I must ask… what are these extra studies you’re talking about?_ ”

And that was how they discovered that all that extra work his grandfather had him do was just another ‘method of abuse’ intended to overwhelm Chad and keep him from performing well, and that was- it was-

“Bad,” Jay informed him. “That was bad because your grandfather was a bad man, and he shouldn’t have hurt you like that.”

“No,” Chad agreed, something he had to feel out slowly but surely. “No, he shouldn’t have.”

It was still something he was working on, but over the sessions he had with his therapist, it was beginning to get easier. At first it had been hard, but then his therapist had suggested that he put Jane or Doug or Jay in his shoes instead. Would they have deserved to get hurt because they wanted to take dance? Would they have deserved mean phone calls because they weren’t doing well in school? Even _if_ they were the heir to a kingdom?

The answer was no, and when Chad tried to press that he was an exception to that rule, no one would back him on it.

Because he wasn’t. 

They didn’t deserve to be hurt, and _he_ didn’t deserve to be hurt, and that mattered.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“And you’re cool with this?” Chad asked, shifting his weight nervously as he regarded his father over video chat. “That I’m um- dating Jay? Jane said she’d give us a magic baby-”

“ _Even if she didn’t_ ,” his father interrupted, which he didn’t do much because he wanted to listen to what Chad had to say, but would if he needed to make an important point. “ _I would still support you a hundred percent, Chad. If Jay likes you and supports you and you’re happy with him – why, that’s all I could ever ask for_.”

“Oh, I…” Chad trailed off, his throat feeling tight and eyes hot and maybe it was familiar but at least this was in a nice way. “Thanks.”

“ _I love you_ ,” his father countered, because you didn’t have to thank family for that kind of stuff, and honestly, that was better than a ‘you’re welcome’ any day.

Of course, dating Jay came with rules, which Chad hadn’t realized until Fairy Godmother sat them down the day after their celebration.

“If you’re doing this,” she began. “It’s important that you communicate and respect each other. From my observations, you’re both new to this, so I want to reiterate how very okay it is for you to be nervous about certain things. You are equals in this, neither better than the other, and you shouldn’t do something you don’t want to do it or if you don’t feel ready for it. If you’re not a hundred percent onboard, then it can wait, and that goes for both of you.”

“I… thanks, Fairy Godmother,” Jay said, looking overwhelmed by her speech.

“It’s my pleasure, dear,” Fairy Godmother chirped. “Now, I believe it’s time for us to have _the talk_.”

Chad had heard rumors of said talk from Doug, but it was slightly more embarrassing to have it delivered by Fairy Godmother, even if she set them off with a box of condoms and a few bottles of lubricant after the fact.

“It’s always horrific,” Jane informed them when he and Jay had retreated to his bed to cuddle away their shock. “But it’s a rite of passage for all families.”

“Really?” Chad perked up, because that made it seem a lot better.

“Really,” Jane confirmed with a grin. “She wouldn’t have given it to you if she didn’t care, but she wants you to be safe and comfortable, so she did.” She settled down on the floor beside the bed properly, one hand reaching up to comb through Chad’s curls. “That’s what family does for one another.”

“Oh,” Chad said, thinking about how much easier it could have been for Fairy Godmother to let them wander blind.

As a mental exercise, he tried to think of all the bad reasons why she could have done this, but even when he did that, he couldn’t come up with anything that made any kind of sense. She’d done it purely for their benefit.

“We are family,” Jane informed him, not because she thought he was dumb and would forget, but because he hadn’t been given that enough in his life. “And I love you very much.”

“I love you too, Jane,” Chad said, unable to hide the absolute honesty in his tone. “…do you think my dad will make you a princess if I ask?”

Jane flushed dark. “You don’t- you don’t have to do that, Chad, we would still be family.”

“I know,” Chad said. “But I think I’d really like it if you were heir with me.”

Jay let out a low hum. “That sounds like something that warrants a phone call.”

Chad had been nervous, but that time all four of them had crowded around the tablet while Chad explained his reasoning to his father’s patient image.

“So um…” Chad shifted. “If that would- would be okay-”

“ _I love it_ ,” his father said, smiling so wide Chad thought his cheeks might hurt. “ _I can officially claim Fairy Godmother and Jane as family on paper as soon as possible, but when would you like to have the official coronation?_ ”

“In the summer?” Chad hazarded. “After Cotilliion. Then Jane could start junior year as a princess.”

“You’d definitely make cheerleader then,” Jay whispered, making Jane flush.

“ _A summer coronation sounds lovely_ ,” his father said. “ _Is that alright with you, Jane?_ ”

“I’d… it’s perfect,” Jane said, seeming overwhelmed and flushed the way Chad usually was. “But really, you don’t have to do this. I’d be happy just being Chad’s official family.”

“ _I do not have to_ ,” his father agreed, making Chad’s stomach sink for a second before he continued with, “ _But I **get** to, and that is a privilege I consider entirely more relevant._” 

“All hail, Princess Jane,” Jay cheered, making Jane’s blush darken. “Cinders and fairies for life!”

“Yeah,” Chad said, his own smile sort of helpless but happy, because his grandfather had hated his parents’ fairytale, had hated Fairy Godmother’s magic, but it had helped his mother and now it had helped him, and Chad wanted the world to know his appreciation for them. “Cinders and fairies for life.”

“ _Hear, hear_ ,” his father said, and this must be what family was like, and if it was, then Chad didn’t want anything else as long as he lived. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad supposed it was likely inevitable for him to have to see Ben again.

Like, eventually he’d go back to school, and as large as Auradon Prep was, Ben still hung out with the VKs and Jane, and Chad wanted to hang out with the VKs and Jane, so obviously he was going to have to make nice with the dude he’d made cry that one time.

Ben hadn’t made any public statements in regards to the mate stuff, though his dad had given one that essentially boiled down to ‘ _back off, it’s private – don’t bother any parties involved_ ’, something that Fairy Godmother had actually stopped and applauded when they heard it on the news station. She, Chad’s father, and Ben’s parents had done a great job keeping the press at bay in regards to any of the circulating rumors, though most of Auradon seemed to take it at face value that Chad was Ben’s mate now. 

Fairy Godmother wouldn’t let him scroll social media in an effort to get more information because apparently a lot of people weren’t saying nice things (what else was new?), but Jay assured Chad that he and Ben and the others were sticking up for him for the few students who were crappy enough to say mean things after the video of his assault had leaked.

Doug felt terrible about that despite it not being his fault. Like, Carlos had even hacked into the Inspectors Office just to trace the source of the leak and managed to collect enough information to anonymously turn it over and get the opportunistic file clerk fired and blacklisted and a tiny bit arrested. Of course, none of that they could mention to anyone because it was technically illegal and violated Carlos’ probation (all the Isle kids were on a six month one after swearing to be good at Ben’s coronation, after which they’d officially be integrated into Auradon), but Jay had told him about it anyway.

Chad had spent a lot of time amazed that Carlos had risked so much for him, but Jay was the one that had best explained it.

“We know what it’s like to hurt,” the Agraben said simply. “And none of us want to allow others to get away with that anymore, so if he could help, he wanted to.” Jay cleared his throat. “Also, there’s um- the fact that you’re my boyfriend, so…”

“Does everyone know about that?” Because Chad wasn’t ashamed or anything, would shout it from the rooftops himself if he was allowed on social media and had told Jay as much because he didn’t want the Agraben to doubt it, but he still didn’t know the full goings on of Auradon Prep.

“They know,” Jay said, nodding slowly. “At least, the important people do, and Lonnie’s been slowly circulating the knowledge so people can have time to adjust to it.”

And not be assholes, he didn’t say, but Chad heard it loud and clear.

Wow, he had so many friends, and he knew a lot of them did this stuff just because they were decent, but… well, maybe they did it a little bit for him too. He was working on accepting that. It seemed like too much to hope for, but if he had Jay and Jane, maybe he could have that too.

“…Does Ben know?” Chad asked, because that was the truly worrying question.

A pause, and then Jay nodded, his jaw tight. “He knows.”

His reaction made Chad’s shoulders tense. “He hasn’t been um- mean to you, has he?”

“No,” Jay said, and that seemed to worry him more. “He hasn’t really treated me differently, but Mal confirmed that he knew and believed what was going on, so I… I don’t really know what that means.”

A few days later, they managed to get down to the bottom of things.

“Chad, sweetheart,” Fairy Godmother said while they were cleaning up dinner, Jay joining them, as had become usual. “Ben would like to know if he could speak to you again.”

Chad paused to consider this. It had been a couple months since the last time he had seen Ben, a couple months of therapy and regular visits from his dad and dating Jay. A couple months of having a family. 

The truth was, he didn’t really have anything different to say to Ben than he had last time, but he was in a much better place now to hear the king out, so he guessed he could listen to what he had to say. After all, he and Ben had sort of been friends before this had all gone down anyway.

Chad cleared his throat. “Could Jay join us?”

Both Fairy Godmother and Jay paused with surprise, but then she nodded, like she was making that executive decision. “Yes, I think that will be quite alright.”

That was what brought Ben to the cottage living room once more, the king settling into the arm chair while Chad and Jay sat next to each other on the couch. 

He looked… Chad wouldn’t say better than last time, because Ben still seemed a bit rumpled and exhausted, but at least there weren’t awful bags under his eyes, and he was calm in way he’d been back when he’d made his first proclamation, like he was quietly certain of his actions. It was an inner strength Ben couldn’t help but reflect on the outside, and where it used to make Chad feel small, now it just made him feel comfortable, because that was the kind of person he’d want to be king of everything anyway.

“So,” Ben began quietly, his hands folded together in a picture of composure. “First of all, thank you for agreeing to see me.”

“Um… you’re welcome,” Chad decided, feeling maybe the tiniest bit dumb that this was a thing Ben needed to say in the first place. 

And yet, Ben still managed a small, supportive smile, which soothed some of the tension in Chad’s chest. “I um- wanted to talk to you about a few things.”

“I’m dating Jay,” Chad blurted out, because- well, even if Ben knew, maybe he was a little afraid the king would go on about how they were supposed to be together.

Chad wanted to wince, and he was pretty sure Jay might have beside him, but after a confused blink, Ben seemed to revert back to his easy smile.

“Right,” the king said. “That was actually what I wanted to talk about.” He held a hand up before Chad or Jay could respond. “I wanted to say, before you come back to school, that I support you and I’m happy for you.”

And now it was Chad and Jay’s turn to be confused.

“You’re… not upset?” Chad asked, because Ben had been all tearful and stuff a few months ago, and Chad had felt bad for him, just like, not enough to date him.

“No,” Ben said, running a hand through his hair. “No, um- this time apart… it’s given me the opportunity to process things.”

Ah, so he had realized the error of his ways. Or maybe that his nose had gotten something wrong. That was embarrassing.

“When I last saw you,” Ben continued. “That was right after I’d realized who you were to me, and who Taylor wasn’t. And then that mess with your grandfather came out and I was- I was so distraught, torn between the pain of you hurting and the joy of finding you that I didn’t really give you the time you needed, I didn’t realize that you needed space to process stuff too, and I just thought…” He shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought then, the point is that I’m sorry for trying to pressure you and adding to your problems when I’d only ever wanted to make them better.”

That was actually really sweet, and of course it was because it was Ben, and he was a really sweet guy. That was just in his nature.

“Thank you,” Chad said, his throat feeling thick. “I appreciate that.”

“I’m glad,” Ben said, smiling like he meant it. “And I want you to know that I haven’t- nothing that’s happened has changed anything, or how I feel, but I talked about it a lot with my parents and I realized that a lot about having a mate – or just having a love – is supporting them. At the end of the day, I just want you to be happy, Chad, and if being with Jay makes you happy, then I support that a hundred percent.”

“Oh,” Chad said, because that was super nice. Not a surprise, but definitely overwhelming.

“This um- isn’t intended to be a guilt trip either,” Ben said, though his gaze slid over to Jay as he said this. “But since you are one of the most important people in my life-”

“Why, though?” Chad interrupted, because he’d never gotten an answer to that. At least, not one that made sense.

Ben blinked, but took the prompting for what it was. “You mean, why didn’t I notice it sooner,” he said, and it wasn’t even a question, but Chad nodded nonetheless because both queries felt relevant. “Chad… you were covering up so much of yourself before. None of us knew how much your grandfather forced you to hide. And when I saw you on that stage – when you allowed yourself to be someone else – it was like I was seeing you for the first time, because you were free.”

His hand twitched, like maybe he was restraining himself from doing something, but Ben didn’t move, the entirety of his focus on Chad.

“You weren’t putting up a front to pretend things were okay,” Ben said. “You weren’t making snide comments to cover up how exhausted you were and you weren’t conforming yourself to whatever rules your grandfather gave you – you were just yourself, and I saw that- my beast saw it – and was lucky enough to know there was so much more underneath that, and if you’d give me the chance, I’d like to get to know the real you. As um- a friend, if nothing else.”

Chad… guessed that was fair. At least, he _had_ been hiding a lot back then, but that was how his life went. He had to put up a front because if he didn’t, his grandfather would be mad at him, and he had to cover up what he really liked or how he actually wanted to be because his grandfather said all those things were um- garbage and unbecoming of an heir to Sardinia.

Chad had spent so long feeling like he wasn’t enough, that he could never be enough, but for one short weekend he had gotten to _not_ be himself, and that…

Yeah, it had been liberating, and even though it had led him down a painful road, it had also gotten him a family and support and love, so he couldn’t really complain all that much. 

“…I’d like that,” Chad said, because at the end of the day, he _did_ like Ben. And maybe it was a bad idea to distract him because Ben needed like, a real mate or partner or whatever, but if Ben was happy to just give him friendship, Chad would be happy to take it.

“Great,” Ben chirped, brightening up considerably. “And um… I know it’s not conventional, but because you’re my… well, if there’s anything I can do to help, anything at all that would make you happy, I’d like to do that, please, whatever it is.”

“Even if it was leaving?” Jay asked, not really looking at either of them.

Ben paused, but he didn’t scowl or anything. Instead, he nodded. “I would, if that was what Chad wanted.”

That was a lot of power, and frankly it wasn’t something Chad thought he deserved, but he wasn’t allowed to dwell on that much before Ben was looking at him again.

“And if you wanted me to look after Jay,” Ben continued. “I’d do that too.”

“You would?” Chad asked, perking up while Jay tensed. “Because I… I get worried about people being mad at him or something, and Fairy Godmother said I’m not going back until next semester, so I can’t… I can’t be there for them to be mad at instead.”

“First of all, that’s not going to happen,” Ben said as Jay gave Chad a worried look. “And second of all, I would be happy to do that. Like I said, anything you need.”

Anything was an awful lot, and Chad knew he shouldn’t abuse (or even use) that offer, but…

“Could you save Jay one of those peanut butter brownies at lunchtime?” Chad asked, making Jay startled beside him. “Because they’re always out by the time he gets there but they’ll let you have two.”

“ _Chad_ ,” Jay hissed, his cheeks flushing with heat.

“What?” Chad asked, blinking in confusion. “He asked, and you love those things.”

And if Chad could help Jay get them, he wanted to.

For whatever reason, this made Ben laugh. “Yes, I can- I can definitely do that, Chad.”

“Great,” Chad said, already perking up with happiness. 

This could work out. He didn’t really want anything for himself, but if he could get nice things for Jay, he wanted to.

Though it made him wonder…

“You’re um- not mad at Jay?” Chad asked, because no matter how many times he presented the question to his boyfriend, Jay never really seemed to have an answer.

“No,” Ben said, seeming to mean it. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t really surprised. Jay’s always been interested in you.”

“Huh,” Chad mused while Jay’s blush darkened.

“He’s also always been provocative,” Ben offered, which seemed to make Jay to choke on nothing. “In that he doesn’t mind seeking out negative reactions to justify his past abuse.”

“ _Ben_ ,” Jay croaked, his tone sounding strangled.

Chad didn’t really get it, but in a way, it made sense. When Jay had first climbed through Chad’s window to check on him, when he’d asked to see Chad’s _second injury_ -

He always sort of picked fights and smirked when he got backlash, but Chad thought he just liked to stir shit up. He hadn’t realized that Jay was used to people seeing him as the bad guy, or maybe he thought of _himself_ as a bad guy, so he searched out that kind of attention.

“It’s true,” Ben said, relentless. “And I’ll admit, when I first heard you were dating I… I took a few days off because I was so mad I couldn’t think straight, but then I realized it was Jay, and Jay wouldn’t go out of his way to hurt you the same way he wouldn’t try to hurt Carlos or Evie or Mal – you’re too important to him.”

To rank that kind of consideration – it was a lot, and yet, Chad knew without even having to look at Jay that it was true. 

The transfer students didn’t really commit to relationships if they didn’t mean them. Cue Evie and Doug’s epic goo-goo eyes, and Mal calling things off with Ben after like, two weeks. She’d known it wouldn’t work, so she hadn’t drawn things out.

“Wow,” Chad said, because he’d somehow managed to land a sweet and thoughtful boyfriend who would probably be okay with being his consort one day entirely on accident.

Or just- not, because Jay had literally climbed up to his window just to look after him. He’d caught Chad when he fell.

Part of him wondered if Ben would have done the same, but ultimately, it didn’t matter.

“Huh,” Chad said, thinking it all over. “You’re important to me too, Jay.”

“Thank you,” Jay said, though he still dragged an embarrassed hand over his face the way he did every time a topic that he considered too mushy was brought up.

“So,” Ben said, clearing his throat carefully. “I was um- wondering if it would be okay for me to come down and visit you a few times a week? As a friend? Or maybe we can just email or something – whatever’s best for you.”

And he seemed to mean it, was the thing. It was hard taking people at their word sometimes because aside from them being somewhat unbelievable, a lot of Chad’s past tutors had pressed the importance of not taking things at face value. He was a royal, lots of people were going to tell him what he wanted to hear just to get on his good side. It was why Chad couldn’t just date _anyone_ , they had to be approved by his grandfather, only Chad himself had never been good enough to earn that privilege.

There was a lot of stuff Chad was slowly unlearning from the past sixteen years of his life, but Ben… he was a busy guy, and Chad was fairly certain he wouldn’t extend the effort to keep up with Chad unless he really wanted to. And maybe there was no speaking to his taste, but Ben was someone he respected, so he should probably respect the words he said as true. 

“Okay,” Chad said. “You can visit. If it- if you want.”

“I do,” Ben said, smiling so wide it looked like his cheeks would hurt. “So um- do you want me to go or uh…”

“We were just about to have dessert,” Chad offered. “But we need to finish washing the dinner dishes first.”

“I can help with that,” Ben said, perking up considerably, and that was how they learned that Mrs. Potts had taught him a thing or two about how to clean up a kitchen. 

It was kind of bizarre to see the King of Auradon with his sleeves rolled up, armed with a pair of rubber gloves as he attacked the dishes, Jane loading them in the dishwasher and Chad and Jay putting the food into Tupperware, but hey, if that was what Ben wanted to do, Chad could respect it.

They watched some feel-good tv show during desert, Ben and Fairy Godmother taking the armchairs while Chad settled in his usual spot between Jane and Jay, and it wasn’t even awkward or the tiniest bit weird, but really, really good.

Chad decided he liked it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Ben didn’t come over often, but he made a point to visit at least once a week – assuming he cleared it with both Fairy Godmother and Chad ahead of time. 

It was strange, how he could come in with his shoulders all wound up tight, and then get thrown into dinner preparation or helping Chad study or board game night, and in ten minutes he’d be all relaxed, laughing and smiling like the weight of the united kingdoms wasn’t resting on his shoulders.

Chad worried about that – worried about Ben as much as someone like him should be able to. He knew it wasn’t really his place, but Ben’s job was hard and he was young, and in addition to school he was in council meetings and legislative quorums almost all the time. Like, it used to be that Chad could barely handle being prince of Sardinia (he was doing a lot better now, and he and his dad would review protocol over video chat and his father would beam at him when he got stuff right and encourage him if he got stuff wrong and sometimes he’d mail Chad and Jane and Fairy Godmother _presents_ just because he could until Chad was so happy he could cry). 

Chad couldn’t imagine the stress of being king, let alone king of _everything_ , so every once and a while when Ben would call late at night, sounding apologetic but tired, Chad didn’t turn him away. Either they’d talk on the phone – Ben letting him go on about Jane and Jay’s latest triumphs, or the king would come in person and ask if they could walk around the garden.

Ben always kept his hands to himself, kept a certain distance between them, and sometimes Jane would join them and sometimes they’d just sit by the pond and throw rocks in it and Ben would ask Chad to talk about his childhood or his love of dance or anything, and if the stories were sometimes sad, he didn’t mind them, offering his own comforting support.

“Thank you, for this,” Ben would say every time he had to leave. “I… it’s easier when I’m near you. Just- I mean for beast stuff, and friend stuff. In general.”

“I’m glad I can help, Ben,” Chad would say, and he was slowly getting better on discerning Ben’s attempts to not make him feel awkward. 

Ben was a thoughtful guy like that.

Of course, like most new developments in his life, Chad worried about how Jay would take things, because as time went on, he found himself growing more attached to the Agraben. Jay was funny and cute but mostly, underneath all that confidence and charm, he was sweet. Like, sugary sweet. He didn’t just want to be good, he wanted to be a _hero_ , he wanted to fight for people, and Chad would have been afraid that Jay maybe only liked him because he’d been a damsel, but Jay had already told Chad the reasons he liked him. He had to trust that.

Because Chad’s life no longer had to be a guessing game, he decided to tackle the problem head on when he and Jay were reviewing basic sword forms for Swords and Shields next semester. Jay had a lot of natural skill and unfortunately gathered experience, but he needed a little polish – or at least some insight – on how everyone else would be fighting. Chad was pretty sure he was a guarantee for the team, and had been working away at convincing Jay to apply for the open captain position. A lot of the Swords and Shields team also did Tourney, so they already respected Jay. Chad figured between himself, Jane, and Carlos, they could get that form filled out, and then Jay would have another patch to add to his letterman jacket.

“Hey,” Chad spoke up about thirty minutes into their practice session, when Jay seemed to be in the zone. “So, um- this Ben stuff-”

Jay jolted, sort of flailing off to the side in a hybrid trip/stumble that left him cursing a quiet retreat back to their water bottles, waving for a time out.

Ever the dutiful boyfriend, Chad followed after him. “Sorry.”

“No apologies needed,” Jay assured him distractedly before grabbing for his bottle. “I’ve um- been expecting this conversation.”

“Oh.” Right, people tended to think that because Jay was a jock he wasn’t like, smart, but his dad had been the head strategist of Agrabah for a really long time, and Jay hadn’t lost out on that intellect. “Okay, so- does it bother you?”

Jay paused, like he’d expected the conversation but maybe not how Chad would approach it. “I mean… it’s Ben. You can’t really be mad at Ben.” He took a distracted drink of his water. “You can’t really compete with him either.”

It took Chad a few seconds to put together the pieces. “…I don’t want to date Ben, Jay.”

“Chad,” Jay sighed, dragging a hand over his face. “The only reason you don’t want to date Ben is because you don’t want to be Consort of Auradon.”

“Right,” Chad said, then frowned. “I mean, not right, because I also want to date you.”

“Because I _won’t_ make you consort of anything,” Jay countered. “I’m politically nothing.”

“You’re politically super cool,” Chad offered, not sure if he liked this conversation. “Jay, I’m not dating you because you don’t have any power, I’m dating you because you’re nice and sweet and funny and you’re supper supportive of me figuring myself out.”

“Right,” Jay echoed. “Except Ben can do all those things, except better.”

Now Chad was full-on frowning. “I don’t like you comparing yourself to Ben.”

“Sorry,” Jay offered, his shoulders slumping. “Look, it’s not like I think you’ll fall for Ben on purpose, but if he like, magically came up with an offer where you could be with him and _not_ be consort of Auradon – like, Mal or Audrey or whoever would do that with him while he got to date you – you don’t think you’d be a little bit interested?”

“Not really,” Chad said. “Because you wouldn’t be there, and I want you there and… and you have to trust that,” Chad said. “You have to trust me the way I trust you, even though it’s hard to believe.”

There was a beat where Jay stared at the ground, and then he was sighing, aiming a tired look at Chad. “You had to go and use your healthy therapy stuff on me, didn’t you?”

“We deserve it,” Chad reminded him, which was enough to coax Jay into a small smile. “Jay, I might be Ben’s mate or whatever, but what we have right now – I’m happy with that. That’s what I want.”

“I just think maybe that you’re settling because you’re scared,” Jay said. “Because um- I’m less complicated than Ben is.”

“I think that depends on how you look at it,” Chad said, because Jay had his own issues too, which could be considered complicated, but Chad knew that wasn’t what Jay meant. “How about this – if I get even the slightest inkling that I um- have a real crush on Ben, I’ll tell you about it immediately, and then we can freak out about it and decide what to do together. I will promise that, even though it’ll be awkward and scary.”

“You’re brave,” Jay told him, tossing his water bottle to the side so he could pull Chad into a tight hug. “Don’t you ever forget that, okay? You’re brave, and we’re all very proud of you.”

“You are also brave, and we are also proud of you,” Chad reminded him, and if they cut off practice early in favor of cuddles, well, Chad was pretty sure no one would blame them.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad decided not to mention Jay’s concerns to Ben. It wasn’t like they were best friends or anything, but still, Chad found Ben to be a great source of comfort. Once he got over being afraid of wasting Ben’s time, he found Ben’s quiet regal bearing to be soothing rather than like, a mockery of all he wasn’t. His dad was king of Sardinia and _he_ thought Chad was cool, which was really all that mattered in the end. 

So while he didn’t mention Jay’s stuff particularly, he did find himself accidentally stumbling into a different facet of their relationship during one of their private walks together.

To be fair, Ben had asked.

“What is it?” the king pressed, watching Chad fidget from the corner of his eye. “You seem preoccupied.”

“Sorry,” Chad said, feeling himself flush dark. “I um- I’ve been thinking about something, but I’m not sure who to ask for advice yet.”

“You could ask me,” Ben said softly.

“…it’s about Jay,” Chad said, shooting Ben an apologetic expression. He didn’t like to put the king in an awkward position.

And yet, Ben didn’t look put off. “You can talk about Jay,” he said. “I’m here for anything you need, Chad. If I can help, I’d like to, and if we get to a topic I don’t feel comfortable with, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay,” Chad said, feeling better now that Ben had laid that out. He was pretty good at direct communication, once he realized how much Chad thrived on it. “Um… so uh- you’ve had girlfriends.”

“I have,” Ben said, giving a slight nod of confirmation.

“So uh… did you um- make out with them?” Chad asked, wanting to wince because this was a _king_ he was talking, but Ben had chosen to be there, and Chad had to remember that.

That time, it was Ben who flushed dark. “Not um- really,” he said. “With Audrey, things were mostly political. And with Mal… well, we were better friends in the end.”

“Oh.” Chad felt his shoulders slump, because he’d been hoping for a slightly different answer.

“You have making out questions?” Ben asked, his brows furrowed in curiosity.

“No, not really,” Chad said, running a hand through his curls. “Jay and I do that just fine. Just um- I was wondering… how do you know when you’re ready to do more?”

Ben froze, and to his credit, seemed to give the question the consideration it was due. “You talk about it,” he said finally. “It has to be a decision the two of you make together and when you both feel ready, you um- experiment. But it’s not… I know all the tv shows and movies and books push for it, but it’s not something you guys have to rush into, Chad. Not going past making out wouldn’t make your relationship mean less. It’s really just about doing what you’re happy with. I um… I know a lot of people think that sex is the be-all, end-all expression of love, but that’s really not the case – so if either of you want to hold off… well, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Thanks, Ben,” Chad said, shooting him a relieved smile. Somehow, Ben always knew just the right thing to ease Chad’s anxieties. 

It wasn’t that Chad _didn’t_ want to have sex with Jay, because he did. He was young and hormonal and well, he’d already done it once with Ben, but at the time he’d been pretending to be someone else, which had made him more comfortable with everything.

Now if they did anything, he would have to be unquestionably _himself_ , and that was a little bit scary.

Jay wasn’t rushing him or anything, he was always happy to let Chad set the pace, but still, the blond worried.

Chad cleared his throat. “Just… it’s a lot, you know? Because once we get to that part, it’ll just be me and him, and what if I do something wrong?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t want to mess up.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Ben began. “If it’s your first time, you’re both probably going to be awkward about it. It’s an awkwardness you can do together. I mean, the only reason I think I did things even slightly well with us was because I let my beast senses take over.”

“Huh,” Chad mused, thinking about how hungry Ben had seemed, how in control. “Do you think…”

“What?” Ben asked, perking up.

“No,” Chad shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t have thought of it.”

“Chad-”

“Because you’d probably say yes,” Chad said. “And that wouldn’t be fair of me. Or – fair to you.”

“Chad,” Ben repeated. “Contrary to popular belief – you don’t consume my every waking thought. You don’t consume my capacity for reason. You’ve never really asked for something unreasonable for me, and the moment you did, you have to trust that I would say no to it.”

_Ugh_ , Chad was learning so much about trust nowadays. It was exhausting.

But he supposed Ben had a point.

“I’d have to ask Jay,” Chad warned. “But um- if he was cool with it, could you coach me through um- making him feel good?”

Ben paused, his body going horribly tense. And then- “I um- need a moment to think it over,” he said before strolling towards the other side of the garden, and Chad let him, because it was important for people to have space when they needed it.

And then Ben was back, almost as though he’d never left.

“Only if Jay’s okay with it,” Ben said. “And we have very clear guidelines about everything.”

“Okay,” Chad said, feeling relieved that he hadn’t broken Ben’s brain or something. “Thank you, Ben.”

“You’re welcome, Chad,” Ben said. “So um… want to play scrabble?”

“Oh, you’re _on_ ,” Chad said, because there was no way he was going to let Ben corner the market on ‘ _whoa_ ’ or _‘fen_ ’ anymore. Oh no, now Ben was going to have to work for his obscure booknerd words.

Chad waited until he and Jay were alone in his room the next day to mention the conversation, and Jay took it about as well as Chad expected, in that he seemed very confused.

“…you want Ben to coach you through pleasing me,” Jay said, his cheeks flushing at the mere mention of it. “You know I could do that too, right?”

“Right,” Chad said, feeling his own face flood with heat. “Sorry. I don’t know where it came from. I just thought about how at ease Ben makes me feel, and just- his beast knows what it’s doing, and if he was around, I couldn’t mess up and force you to have to lie and pretend something was good if it wasn’t.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Jay pressed.

“And we also don’t have to do this,” Chad said. “It’s just an option.”

Jay thought about this, then sighed.

“You don’t have to agree to this,” Chad cut in before he could talk. “I mean it, Jay.”

It turned out that sometimes Jay had low self-esteem like Chad did, and while it was nice to have something to relate to, it always made Chad a little bit saddened to think that his boyfriend didn’t understand how amazing he was. Then again, he figured maybe Jay felt the same way, which was just- _whoa_. 

“I know,” Jay huffed. “The problem isn’t that I _don’t_ want to do it, it’s that I _really_ want to do it and that… worries me.”

Chad paused, because that had not been something he expected. “…do you have a crush on Ben?”

“Like, a _tiny_ one,” Jay said, throwing his hands up in the air. “But that just makes me human!”

“Hey, I agree with that,” Chad laughed, which confused Jay until Chad was pulling him into a hug, because Jay didn’t need to feel bad about such things. “So… you’re worried you’ll like this-”

“But Ben’s only doing it for you,” Jay sighed. “Which I don’t resent, because you should get nice things, just…”

“You should also get nice things,” Chad informed him. “And if you want a king to um- watch you get pleasured, and if that’s a thing I can make happen-”

“Oh man,” Jay groaned, burying his head against Chad’s shoulder.

“It’s not something you have to decide now,” Chad informed him, meaning every word.

“I made up my mind like, three minutes ago,” Jay muttered. “This has just been me dragging things out to be a drama queen.”

“Valid concerns, not drama,” Chad tutted. “Want to cuddle in bed?”

“Always and forever,” Jay murmured, and when he said sweet stuff like that, how could Chad _not_ kiss him?

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Okay,” Ben said, settling into Chad’s desk chair that they’d pulled up beside the bed. It was sort of comforting that he seemed nervous, but they’d already outlined the color rules and their safe word and all that, so now it was time to dive into the thick of things. “Are you guys ready?”

“Um…” Chad looked down at Jay who was splayed out on his back, Chad curled up beside him on the far side of the bed so Ben could have a clear view of both of them. They were both shirtless – Chad mostly out of solidarity – and Jay seemed flushed and slightly nervous too. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Cool,” Ben said, nodding to himself. “Um… you can always start with kissing.”

“Great, right- that’s- yeah,” Chad agreed, and then he was leaning over Jay, snagging his lips in a familiar shift, and maybe it was just a bit more exciting because Ben was watching them – something that seemed to make Jay a little less confident than usual, but he still kissed Chad back until they’d established a comfortable rhythm, one that filled Chad with a distinct warmth.

He pulled back when Jay’s flush began to spill down his chest, when he caught the sight of a growing interest between Jay’s legs.

“So,” Chad cleared his throat, getting Ben’s attention. “Um, how do I…” He motioned to Jay’s crotch.

“ _Um_.” Ben seemed to swallow. “Well, you can either push down his cloths or um- slip your hand into his underwear, but you’ll have more maneuverability with the first option.”

“Okay,” Chad said before coaxing Jay to lift his hips up, the Agraben allowing him to pull down his sweatpants and boxer briefs in one movement. 

And that was- oh _wow_ , that was Jay’s-

This was the first time Chad had seen the um- special area of another dude, and it was um- it was pretty cool, that Jay trusted him with this, and he looked super pretty, all flushed and wet like that.

“Whatever you’re thinking,” Ben said, the bridge of his nose flushed a dark crimson. “You can tell him that.”

“Oh,” Chad blinked, because that hadn’t really occurred to him. “You’re very pretty, Jay. And um- thank you, for trusting me with this.”

“ _Fuck_ , man,” Jay gasped, his length twitching in interest.

Oh, that was- yeah, that was cool. Like, they’d rutted together a few times with their clothes on and that felt pretty good, but this was um- in a whole new dimension.

“Here,” Ben said, passing over the lube. “You should…”

“Right,” Chad said, squirting some onto his hand and lathering Jay’s length as instructed.

Oh wow, oh geeze, he was touching a dude’s length. His hand was on another guy’s length and the world wasn’t burning down and Jay was biting at his bottom lip, rutting his hips hopefully into Chad’s hold.

The blond swallowed hard. “What um- do I do now?”

“Do what would feel good on yourself,” Ben advised. “Just… you know…”

And Chad did know, but-

Well, his spontaneous thinking wasn’t always the best.

“Could you show me?” he asked, giving Ben a hopeful look.

Jay twitched again, the head of his length leaking clear beads of slick. “ _Chad_.”

“I mean, I could always figure it out too,” Chad rushed to say. “But-”

“Would you be okay with that, Jay?” Ben asked, his hands curling against his knees.

“I… yeah,” Jay said, his voice quiet. “Um- green.”

“Okay,” Ben said, and then _his_ hand was wrapping around Jay. Chad backed off to watch him, and the king worked in careful shifts, teasing Jay nice and slow at first and then gradually speeding up his hand.

“Ben,” Jay moaned, his eyes sliding shut as he filled to full arousal in Ben’s grip. “ _Ben_.”

“I’ve got you, Jay,” Ben murmured, his entire focus on the Agraben. “S-See what I’m doing, Chad?”

“Yeah,” Chad said, feeling breathless. “It um- looks really nice.”

“It is,” Ben assured him. “And you can- if you wanted, you could kiss him too, or maybe suck on his shoulder – bite your teeth in just a little bit, if he’s okay with it, then swirl your tongue and suck.”

“Okay,” Chad said, and that seemed to intensify things for Jay – Chad kissing him a little bit before he moved to the Agraben’s shoulder so Jay could have a clear view of Ben pleasuring him.

“Oh _evil_ , Ben,” Jay gasped, shuddering hard in Ben’s hold. “Ben, I-”

“He’s about to come, I think,” Ben said, his chest heaving with deep gasps. “Shall I send him over the edge?”

“Please,” Chad said, murmuring against Jay’s shoulder.

A beat, and then Ben moved his hand with renewed vigor, _really_ rocking Jay’s world until his body went tense, back arching and legs spreading as he fell apart with a sharp cry.

Ben didn’t seem deterred, happy to pump Jay through the entirety of it, his lithe fingers standing out against Jay’s tan skin and he looked so good – both of them did, and Chad… he didn’t know what to do with that, except worry that maybe his tiny little crush on Ben had come back too, which was just super inconvenient.

When it was over, Ben spent a long moment staring at Jay’s wrecked form, the Agraben spattered with his own release and chest heaving, hair splayed out around his head like a sort of halo.

He stared at the results of his handiwork, seeming lost to both of them, and Jay and Chad waited for the king to come back.

“Oh,” Ben said eventually, a distracted, quiet thing. “Oh, I… that makes sense.”

“What?” Chad asked, his heart pounding in his chest suddenly because he’d seen that face before, back when he’d been slightly more terrified and overwhelmed with his state in the world. “Is… is Jay your mate?”

Jay tensed, something that worsened when Ben nodded, and Chad would have – he didn’t know – cry maybe, but then Ben was talking. “You both are,” he said, and then his shoulders were slumping in relief, his entire disposition filling with calm because his beast instincts had told him something and he didn’t have to question it.

“Ben…” Jay swallowed, his legs pulling up so he could get a hand on his clothes. “Don’t just-”

“No,” Ben interrupted, his gaze split between the two of them. “No, I know it now. I… I’ve never seen you be that vulnerable, Jay, and I’ve been getting hints of it for weeks now as um- you allowed me to visit, but now I…” He looked at Chad so the blond would know he was being serious. “This makes sense. And it doesn’t change anything, I’d still be happy to support both of you in a friendly capacity-”

“Aw, man,” Jay groaned, pausing to hide his face in his hands.

“Um.” Chad cleared his throat, leaning down next to Jay’s ear. “Remember when I said I’d tell you if I got a crush on Ben?”

That had Jay startling out of the shelter of his palms, staring up at Chad with a wide gaze. “You don’t- Chad, you don’t have to just say that.”

“I do not,” Chad agreed. “So I’m not. But you’re right.”

Ben perked up. “What’s he right about?”

“About how um- loveable you are,” Chad said. “And, if you’re willing…” He trailed off with a frown. “Well, I still don’t want to be consort of Auradon, and I don’t think Jay wants to either, but if you’ll date us with those stipulations-”

“ _Yes_ ,” Ben said, his gaze very eager. “I mean- you can think about it-”

“So can you,” Chad offered. “You don’t just have to-”

“ _Chad_ ,” Ben interrupted. “The best parts of these past few weeks have been my time with you guys. Both of you guys. Getting to do this left me hopelessly torn and hopelessly happy, and I want- if you are willing to have me, I would like to date you.”

“Cool,” Chad said, and that felt- that was exciting, not terrifying. It was _nice_. “So um- if we do really end up getting married one day, could we like, include Doug and Evie or something? That way she could be queen of everything and we get to have our friends around.”

Ben blinked like he hadn’t expected that, but his grin still spread in delight. “Yeah, I’d- if they’re game for it, I am.”

“Oh fuck, me too,” Jay said, looking pleased. “And then I won’t have to be consort of anything.”

“Just for that, you still have to be consort of Sardinia,” Chad huffed. “And Doug can be consort of Central Auradon, and Evie can be queen of everything.”

“As she should be,” Jay agreed with a hum. “Yeah, I think that could work.”

“Marrying my mates and marrying my friends?” Ben asked, seeming so overwhelmed he could practically burst. “I can’t think of anything better.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

Evie and Doug were, naturally, entirely confused by the proposition. 

“ _Um_ ,” Doug said, flushing dark. “So we’d be um… dating all of you?”

“For political reasons,” Ben said. “So you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to-” Because the upper nobility of Auradon seemed to understand political arrangements – like what Ben and Audrey had. “But you would have um- three boyfriends.”

“If you want,” Chad said. “You’d have to hang out with us more – people would expect that, but um- all of us are okay with being devoted to you smart and talented and nice people so uh… yeah, if you’d take pity on us, that would be cool.”

“There would be no pity,” Evie informed him, her expression sure. “If we do this, you’d have to understand that. We’d all be equals in this.”

“I… okay,” Chad said, because that was fair. 

He couldn’t help but wring his hands together, because he knew that Evie loved Jay and Doug was friends with Ben so really, it was potentially him that was the holdup. Chad hadn’t gotten many visitors aside from Jay and Ben, but Doug had dropped by on occasion to help with Chad’s tutoring, and he’d been nice enough to bring recordings of the jazz concerts Chad had missed so they could watch them together. 

Chad liked watching Doug play, as little as he’d gotten to do it. His grandfather hadn’t really liked him interacting with Doug all that much, which had hurt, because Chad thought Doug was pretty great.

Well, he didn’t have to do that anymore, but there was a big difference between occasionally hanging out and atually dating someone, even if it was in name only.

Evie narrowed her eyes in thought, Doug fidgeting beside her. “I think this works out,” she declared suddenly. “Dwarves are polyamorous by nature, and I know you haven’t said anything-” She aimed this at Doug. “Likely out of fear of disappointing me, but I can tell you’re not quite… settled.”

A furious blush blossomed in Doug’s cheeks. “I… they don’t actually want to date us, Evie.”

“I mean, we could though,” Chad offered. “Like, you might not be Ben’s mates, but he still loves you a lot. And I um- don’t really have anything for you, Evie.” He tried to be honest. “But I’m honored to be your friend, and I’ve always thought Doug was awesome so…”

“You have?” Doug asked, genuinely startled by this.

“Yeah,” Chad admitted. “But my grandfather-”

“Is a _dick_ ,” Jay huffed, which was actually somewhat restrained for him.

“What he said,” Chad settled on, because at this point, he could agree with that much.

His grandfather had been a bad man and now he was paying for his crimes, and that was all there was to it.

“And um- I’ve always thought you were great, Evie,” Jay admitted with a flush. “And anyone you pick is great by extension, so…”

“That just leaves me,” Ben said. “And honestly, I’m happy when they’re happy, and I care for you a lot, so this- it’s a comfort. Having more people close that I know I can trust.”

Evie shared a look with Doug, who seemed to be flushing darker, then turned back to them with a triumphant grin. “Then we’re in,” she declared, sticking her hand out. “Here’s to the future of Auradon?”

A beat, and then Jay and Doug covered her hand with their own, prompting Chad and Ben to follow when they realized what was up, and on the count of three they all cheered for Auradon – which was goofy and weird and Chad honestly loved it an awful lot.

Just- yeah, more people to love. More people to have as his friends. And maybe things would change going forward, but if they did, he was pretty sure he’d be okay, because at that point he wouldn’t be alone, not when he had Jane and Fairy Godmother and his dad.

And honestly, that was more than enough for Chad.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Evie _and_ Fairy Godmother made them sit down to hash out a firm set of rules – things that looked after all of them, that emphasized clear communication and respecting boundaries and trust. Evie actually typed them all out and forwarded them each a copy for their own reference, and Fairy Godmother kept a hold of one physical copy that they all signed indicating their understanding and commitment to the rules, which actually helped more than one of them feel settled. 

“Oh wow,” Doug said later when he was shyly tucked between Chad and Ben, Evie perched like a queen in a blushing Jay’s lap. “I um… thanks, guys.”

“Thank _you_ ,” Chad said, nuzzling Doug’s shoulder because the half-dwarf greatly welcomed physical affection and had given them the okay for such things. “With you guys- with the rules and my therapy and stuff – I’m not nearly as afraid to face the future.”

“I’m glad,” Evie said, smiling because she meant it, because she was the kindest of them all, which Chad found to be substantially more important than beauty.

“Oh, me too,” Ben rumbled, looking on all of them with an expression of overwhelmed fondness. “This is- I think this is perfect.”

“Or maybe not,” Jay hummed. “But it’s close enough for me.”

Chad couldn’t have said it better himself.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It was supposed to be a double date, but somehow their celebratory garden picnic sort of became a tiny powwow, not that Chad could really complain. 

In addition to Carlos and Jane, Mal had tagged along with Lonnie and Aziz in tow, the half-Fae completely unapologetic at crashing the party, though at least they came armed with their own blankets and picnic baskets.

“Like I’m gonna miss the fun,” she drawled as they started spreading things out, the lot of them passing snacks and treats and bottles of lemonade and juice spritzers among each other. 

Over on the patio, Fairy Godmother and Chad’s father were having a bit of a more sophisticated gathering, and for some reason Ben’s parents were there too, the four adults talking and laughing, and his dad seemed so relaxed and happy that it was almost like he’d never been depressed at all, and while Chad knew his dad still had his struggles, at least he could have these high points too. 

They’d had a pretty good video chat before this party had gone down, Chad nervously breaking the news of his expanded relationship to his father while simultaneously asking for some last minute advise. Just- he wanted things to be perfect, was all. This would be his first time seeing Carlos in a while, which wasn’t like rejoining the real world, but it was a definite step forward, and Chad was concerned that maybe he’d lose some of the confidence he’d gained while being surrounded by his family and boyfriends.

“What if it goes terribly?” Chad blurted before he could help himself.

“ _What if it goes well?_ ” his dad countered. “ _It’s easy to get stuck on all the things that might go wrong, but you should try to focus on all the things that could go **right** too. You could have a great time. You could eat some good food. You could get a few kisses._”

“Dad,” Chad blushed, hiding his face in his hands to the sound of his father’s chuckles.

“ _Little things could go wrong_ ,” the king allowed. “ _Because in life, sometimes they do, but you’ll be with people who care for you very much, so if bad things **do** happen, it probably won’t be as awful as you think_.”

“And you’re okay with this?” Chad asked. “I know it’s not conventional…”

It wasn’t what the Duke would want.

“ _I’m happy if you’re happy, Chad_ ,” the king said. “ _Because you are my son, and I love you. I meant what I said before. I don’t care who you date, and neither does Sardinia. It’s no one’s business but your own_.”

“And if-” Chad let his gaze dart to the side even though it was rude, because he needed to know. “-if I um- wanted to take dance again…” 

“ _Then take it_ ,” the king said. “ _And I’ll be at every one of your performances_.”

And at this point, he knew his father meant that.

“Thanks, dad,” he whispered, meeting the king’s gaze with a smile. “I love you.”

“ _I love you too, Kit_ ,” he said, breaking out the pet name he hadn’t used since Chad was a toddler. “ _And if you do end up dancing, try not to lose a shoe, would you?_ ”

That startled a laugh from Chad, one he didn’t know he needed until he was tearing up with helpless humor. “I won’t,” he promised with a sniff. “I’ll do the laces real tight.”

“ _That’s my boy_ ,” the king said, and like so many other times, he seemed so proud he could burst.

And now here they were, soaking up the Auradon sun and allowing it to combat the oncoming cool of winter. Yule would be coming soon, and after that, new years and Chad’s return to Auradon Prep. While he worried what that would mean for him, he had a proper support network now, so even if things were intimidating, he knew he wasn’t alone.

“If anyone fucks with you,” Mal informed him. “Ben and I will growl at them and we will make a note to do something Ben can’t know about for the sake of plausible deniability.”

Ben let out a gusty sigh from where he was wrapped around both Chad and Jay. “You know saying that much could be potentially incriminating, right?”

“I plausibly deny this,” Mal declared with a toss of her hair, earning a round of applause from Lonnie.

“T-Thanks, Mal,” Chad said when his giggles had died down. “I um- I really appreciate it. I mean- all you guys,” he said turning to look at them. “You’ve helped me so much through all this stuff, and I can’t express how grateful I am for your support.”

Because Mal had come for him, with Jay, Mal had helped him get to Medical. Carlos had hacked the Inspectors Office and Doug had turned over the files and Lonnie and Aziz had worked hard to manage the spread of gossip and Jane was his sister and Evie his supporter, and Ben and Jay were his mates. Doug was his mate. Evie was the cool lady willing to put up with them forever – or willing to _commit_ to them because they were equals in this, and he had to remember that.

“Chadwick,” Mal said, making sure to meet his gaze head on. “Let me be the one to speak for all of us when I say you motherfucking deserve it, alright? We know a thing or two about struggling against toxic family members trying to shape us into something that didn’t fit. That in itself made you crew, but now you make Jay happy, which also makes you crew – the same as Jane does for Carlos or Doug for Evie. You’re crew several times over, and that’s not something that will ever go away. So uh…” She shrugged. “I’m not good at speeches, but crew is family, so deal with that.”

A pause, and then Chad was pretty sure tears were welling in his eyes, because his family had just grown again but in the unquestionably best way, and that was all he really needed.

So he took a bit of a risk and cleared his throat. “I love you too, Mal,” he said, smiling when her grin shifted wide.

“Damn straight you do,” she huffed, the others breaking into their own smiles. “And we love the shit out of you, Chadwick James.” She tilted her bottle of lemonade towards Ben. “Same goes for you, Benjamin drama king Florian.”

“I’ll take it,” Ben declared, happy to nuzzle against Jay’s shoulder.

Ben was crew. Chad was crew. They were all crew and it was amazing.

“So,” Lonnie cleared her throat, and only at that point did Chad realize that she and Aziz pretty much had Mal flanked, one on each side of her. “If um- Aziz and I would like to get on your crew…”

“Sweet evil,” Mal huffed. “Is that your way of asking?”

“It was Aziz’s idea,” Lonnie offered immediately, causing the prince of Agrabah to shoot her a wounded look with a dark flush.

Mal rolled her eyes, then reached her hands up to cup both of their cheeks. “…I suppose I could claim you.”

“Equals, Mal,” Evie hummed, slumping happily against Doug whose cheeks were flushed, likely because Chad was doing his best to play footsy with the musician.

“ _My_ hoard, Evie,” Mal huffed, abandoning her bottle so she could wrap an arm around both of them. “And I will burn any who try to argue this.”

“Well,” Aziz murmured. “I guess that’s one way to determine if you like us or not.”

“Babies,” Mal huffed, but then she was leaning over and kissing Aziz, Lonnie whining until the half Fae turned to repeat the process and-

Yeah, it was all very good.

“Hey, Ben?” Chad said as everyone broke out into catcalls. “Thanks for using your master key when you really shouldn’t have.”

“Oh man, I felt terrible about that,” Ben admitted in a gush. “Just… not enough not to check up on you.”

“I’m glad you did,” Chad hummed. “Since it got us here.”

“To be fair,” Jay spoke up. “ _We_ got us here. With a lot of hard work and communication.”

“But you gotta admit,” Chad said. “My sweet dance moves sort of helped.”

“Oh, definitely,” Jay agreed, and then he was kissing Chad because he could, until they got catcalls of their own and Ben wasn’t even grumbling because he was joining along with them, everyone supportive and happy and overall, glad.

It all began with a missing performance credit.

But it ended with them, and that, Chad decided, was entirely more important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, real talk – I rewrote most of this chapter.
> 
> I want to stress the importance of comments, because it was actually the feedback that I got from last chapter that had me reviewing the original chapter four I had lined up and it… was not good. Like, it wasn’t horrible, but I wasn’t happy with it. To reiterate, the feedback I got was good and made a lot of good points – exposing me to things that I just hadn’t considered however long ago I finished this rough draft. 
> 
> The original version of chapter four left more stuff open ended to be addressed in a sequel, but who knows if that sequel will ever be finished and frankly, I could set it up as its own thing if I really wanted to, so I figured to heck with it, old chapter four was lazy so I’m gonna redo it.
> 
> Like, it’s probably not something I’m going to do often because I usually write longer stuff (so there’s a better chance of all the issues getting properly addressed), but this story was short, so it was an easy fix. 
> 
> I spent Friday and Saturday binge writing/editing to come up with this, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! I usually ruminate in angst so much that it was nice to have this extended, fluffy, happy ending. 
> 
> So thank you guys. Seriously, I’ve been at this for a while but I learn new stuff all the time, and it’s thanks to your feedback that I’m able to improve and deliver more thoughtful pieces :)
> 
> Also, don’t expect this much open communication from Chad in the future. This is a distinct exception for the sake of the fluffiest of endings ;D
> 
> If you’re looking for more Descendants goodness, I will be posted the first chapter of my new two-shot shortly, ['Practice, Practice, Practice'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782386), so keep an eye open for that ^_^
> 
> Story notes: 
> 
> In my personal cannon there’s a distinction between Central Auradon (i.e. France, where Beauty and the Beast took place) and the United Kingdoms of Auradon, which is a unification of all the different Disney Kingdoms. Ben earned the Central Auradon crown by birth, and the United Auradon crown via a selection committee – just to explain why Doug is the consort for one and Evie the queen of the other. 
> 
> Also, I know I said it was a spring musical in the first chapter but to make the new timeline work it’s now a Fall musical and they have recitals like, every two weeks or something. The point is, I’m not good at timelines, don’t look to this for that – just get lost in the story ;) 
> 
> We’re assuming in this world that Evie isn’t the heir to Hanover despite me wanting to give that to her always.  
> Also, this end pairing is a mix of romantic and platonic relationships – because politics! But also because platonic relationships can be just as vital going forth in life, and Evie and Doug are definitely couples’ goals and the best of people.
> 
> Got to the end and realized, why not, everyone gets a partner! EVERYONE. It’s my story and I say fluff for all!! 
> 
> Until next time :)
> 
> -:-:-:-:-:-
> 
> ‘The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat, and there isn’t any use for you to doubt it. For he will do as he do do, and there’s no doing anything about it.’ – ‘Rum Tum Tugger’ from the musical Cats.


End file.
